Zuko's True Destiny
by Jerry236
Summary: Zuko the Banished Prince is still trying to decide what he truly wants. The choices he is about to make will follow him for the rest of his life. How will this turn out? Only time will tell.
1. Crossroads of Destiny

**Disclaimer : I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender.**

**Author's Note : Hello Everyone, this is my first story of Avatar, The Last Airbender. This is a story about Zuko making the right choices in life and an Alternation within the series. I understand that there are events that Zuko takes within the story. Without further a do, enjoy the story.**

* * *

Zuko and Iroh had just watched Avatar Aang and Katara leave somewhere in the crystal caves. Aang had proceeded to take the lead while Katara walked behind slowly and couldn't help but stop and look back at Zuko. Zuko made eye contact with Katara for a brief moment. As she leaves, she had a sad expression on her face as she entered another tunnel behind Aang.

"Why uncle?" Zuko asked.

"You're not the man you used to be, Zuko. You are stronger, and wiser, and freer than you've ever been before." Iroh had clutched his fist. "And now you have come to the crossroads of your destiny. It's time for you to choose… the side of good." He said with a serious face.

Zuko closed his eyes for a brief moment to decide which is right and wrong for him. All of a sudden, he heard rumbling from the ground and opened his eyes only to see Iroh trapped in green crystals. Iroh isn't harmed. He is able to move his hands and head. Zuko took a firebending stance to prepare to face an enemy.

Azula and two Dai Li agents had just entered a tunnel where they discovered Iroh and Zuko. Iroh then glared at Azula. "I expected this kind of treachery from you, uncle." She then turned her attention to Zuko. "But you, Zuko. Prince… Zuko. You're a lot of things… but you're not a traitor, are you?" she asked.

"Release him, immediately!" Zuko demanded.

"It's not too late for you, Zuko. You can still redeem yourself."

"Don't listen to her! The kind of the redemption she has is not for you!" Iroh warned Zuko.

Azula turned her head to Iroh. "Then why don't you let him decide, uncle?" she then turned back to Zuko. "I really need you Zuko. I plotted every step of the way to conquer Ba Sing Se. This day…" Azula gripped her fist. "This glorious day in Fire Nation history. And the only way we can win… is together." She then placed her hand on her heart. "At the end of this day, you will have your honor back. You will have father' love. You will have everyone's love. You will have anything you want." She said.

"No, Zuko. Love is not some reward you earn, love is unconditional. Love is the people that care for you." Zuko looked at Iroh. "Please. I'm begging you. Look into your heart and see what it is you truly want." He said.

"You are free to choose. Be warned… I advise you to choose wisely." Azula gave the Dai Li agents the hand signal to leave. The two agents then earthbended themselves out of the crystal mine. Azula then followed the tunnel that Aang and Katara took to escape.

Zuko took his time and thought hard about what to do. _'What… do I want?' _he thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Aang and Katara are running across the Crystal Catacombs not knowing where they are going. "We need to find Sokka and Toph!" Katara said.

"I know!" Aang replied, he had also heard a sound coming from a couple of yards away. He quickly stopped, turned around, and earthbended to create a rocky wall. A blue fireball was launched at them by Azula, and it was strong enough to destroy the rocky wall. Aang had barely kept his ground after being pushed back by winds from the explosion.

Katara then bended a large stream of nearby waters in the catacombs and started clashing with it Azula's strong blue flames. Katara then create a small tsunami to attack Azula with it, but to only have it evaporated by Azula's blue flames herself. As the vapor had begun to spread Aang and Katara stood close to each other. Seconds later, Azula jumped from the fog and started shooting blue flames from each punch she throws at them.

Aang and Katara quickly waterbend and created a water wall to block Azula's firebending. Azula quickly jumped onto a large rock. As soon as Aang saw her on it, he quickly earthbend sever the rock pillar. Azula gasped as she noticed what Aang was doing, so she quickly jumped off before Aang destroyed it. Azula landed and quickly stood up pointing two fingers of her hand each at Katara and Aang. She had no clue who was going to make a move first either her, Aang, or Katara.

Out of nowhere, a large fireball had crashed between the three benders. They all looked to see what it was who fired it. It turns out that Zuko had entered the battlefield. He was seen without his cloak, so that means he came to fight. He used a firebending pose as he walked closely towards the three benders. Zuko looked at Azula who is glaring right back at him. His eyes than stared at her for a brief moment before he turned his attention to Katara. Katara looked at him in a quite sad expression. Zuko remembered what Katara said. _'The Fire Nation took my mother away from me!' _Zuko then looked at Aang and he remembered what Aang once said. _'Maybe one day we could be friends.' _

Aang gasped as he knew what Zuko was going to do.

Zuko finally made a decision. "Hyaah!" He then launched a fist of flames at Azula who quickly knocked his flames to the side with her own flames. Azula wasn't that surprised as she suspected that Zuko had made his decision. Katara smiled at him, and Aang was left confused. He could've sworn that Zuko was gonna aim for him.

Azula kept her composure and smiled at Zuko. "No matter. I should've expected this would happen. You've been around uncle far too long. Now that you have let uncle choose your decision, it's fair that I do away with you now." Azula then smirked. "You have just thrown everything away. And for what? The likes of them?" Azula asked as she pointed at Aang and Katara.

"I chose this path all on my own." Zuko took another firebending stance.

Azula then closed her eyes. "Fine." She then opened them again. "I'll do away with you all right her and now." Azula snapped her fingers and all of a sudden, dozens of Dai Li agents dropped from the ceiling. "Take care of those two." Azula pointed at Aang and Katara. "The traitor is mine." She said as she lit blue flames from her hands. Zuko then prepared for a battle against his sister.

"You're on." Zuko said fearlessly.

Meanwhile, minutes later, Aang and Katara are fighting the Dai Li. Katara and Aang had not been able to land a single attack on a single well-trained Dai Li agent. They were left on the defense. Everytime a Dai Li would launch an earthbending attack, Aang would have to encounter them with his own earthbending. "There's too many! I'll created an opening!" Aang said as he set up a large rock wall.

"Right." Katara suggested.

"Here goes nothing." Aang jumped in front of the rocky wall then sucked up all the air he could in his mouth. He huffed, and he puffed, and he blew most of the Dai Li agents before them away. Some of the Dai Li fell into the water. Some of them hit the ground really hard. Some also hit the wall. "Hurry!" Aang yelled.

As she was about to move, she stopped and looked at Zuko whom seemingly was losing the fight. "But, what about Zuko?" Katara asked.

Aang looked over and saw Zuko on the defensive against Azula. She used one hand shot a huge wave of blue flames at Zuko. Zuko quickly harnessed the flames in his hands, he stretched his arms out and caught the wave of blue flames in the nick of time.

"Come on, Zuzu. I know you could do better than that!" Azula grinned.

"Ngh!" Zuko groaned as he struggled to push back the flames. Even if his sister was stronger than him, he still refused to give up. _'No… I can't let it end like this…!'_ he thought to himself. He then started to take a slow step forward at a time.

"He's actually… pushing her back." Katara said.

"Yeah." Aang said. "!" Aang noticed something was off about Zuko. He looked closely and noticed Azula was adding more fuel into her attack. "!" Aang then gasped. "He can't keep it up! At this rate, Azula's gonna overpower him!" Aang then ran towards Zuko whom is now in trouble. Katara then followed Aang as he ran to aid Zuko.

'_I can barely keep up! At this rate, she'll try to burn me into a crisp!' _Zuko took a couple of steps forward towards her.

"What's the matter, Zuzu? Not enough fuel in the fire?" she asked as she mocked him. "!" Azula then noticed that Zuko was getting closer, she figured out that if they make contact, her flames will explode, causing them both to be sent flying. She gritted her teeth in irritation. "No you don't!" she then used her other hand and added a lot more fuel into her attack.

Zuko noticed that Azula has added more fuel into her attack. _'She's really using both hands?' _he asked himself. Zuko started to feel like he was being pushed back all of a sudden. His body was sliding backwards and he felt dirt rubbing onto his shoes as Azula's attack had gotten intense.

"Well, Zuzu? How do you like it now?" Azula grinned. She was then splashed with water by Katara and her flames had evaporated. "What?" Azula quickly turned to see Aang and Katara in shock.

Aang then jumped in the gap between Zuko and Azula. "!" Azula had barely noticed Aang in close range. Aang got close and air palmed Azula in the chest, sending her flying backwards from a gust of wind into a body of water. Zuko then fell on his knees and started panting heavily.

"Zuko!" Katara called as she then laid a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Zuko looked up at her and smile. "Yeah… I'm just a little exhausted, that's all." He said.

As they kept talking, Aang stood there watching them and was completely thrown off guard when she saw Katara laid a hand on Zuko. They two kept talking for a moment and Aang decided to break their conversation. "Hey… what's going on here? Katara, I thought you despised him!" Aang questioned her.

"At first I did, then I got to know him a little while we were trapped together. It's not what you think, Aang. Zuko really has changed. All he wanted was his father's love, but then realized capturing you wasn't going to make his father love him." Katara explained.

As Katara had continued to explain to Aang about Zuko, Azula climbed out of the water furiously. Azula's makeup was ruined and her hair had loosened a bit. She placed a finger on her left cheek under her eye and saw that some of the makeup was coming off. Her golden eyes then burned with rage. Azula quickly stood up and glared at the three benders from afar. Azula was angry to the point where she started generating lightning through her hands. Azula stared at the three benders trying to decide whom should she strike down from afar. Aang, Katara or Zuko.

As Katara had continued explaining, Zuko couldn't help but look over at the waters and spotted Azula through the corner of his left eye. "!" As soon as Zuko saw Azula generating lightning, he gasped. Azula had finally came to an ultimatum and shot a lightning bolt at them. Zuko quickly ran towards Katara and jumped towards her. "Get down!" he yelled as he grabbed Katara forcing himself and her out of the way.

Aang quickly ducked from Azula's lightning bolt and it hit the ceiling. Big rocks then started falling downwards onto Aang. Trapping him.

Katara got up to see a bunch of rocks had landed on top of Aang. "Aang!"

"Katara!" Zuko called her trying to warn about Azula charging another lightning bolt. Azula shot another lightning bolt at the two trying to separate them. Katara and Zuko both ducked their heads from the falling debris. After the debris stopped falling, they both stood and glared at Azula from across the catacombs. "Looks like we have to face her." He suggested.

"Right." Katara nodded.

They both ran towards Azula preparing to face her in combat. As they arrived, they were prepared to face Azula two on one. Azula glared at Zuko whom was already in a firebending stance and fired a strong wave of blue flames towards Katara.

Katara tried to use waterbending defense, but Azula's flames were too fast. The flames didn't burn Katara, but evaporated her water. "Agh!" Her attack sent Katara flying a few inches backwards to a green crystal temporarily knocking her unconscious. Her hair had loosened itself when she made impact.

Zuko watched on horror how Azula had knocked her out. "Azula!" he roared.

Azula smirked before engaging Zuko in battle again. After a few seconds of shooting flames at each other. "Hm?" Azula stopped to see Aang.

Aang rose from the rocks and crashed onto the ground. His clothes were a little scratched and was a little dirty. Aang used earthbending to rush towards Azula. But to Aang's surprise, a Dai Li agent came out of nowhere and sent Aang flying into the air as the agent earthbend.

"Aah! Aang screamed before crashing onto the ground. "Oof!" he made a thud. He slowly got up and rubbed his head. Seconds later, a number Dai Li agents reappeared assisting Azula. Zuko created long fiery whips from his hands and started using them to keep the Dai Li agents back from harming him. Katara quickly got up and summoned a portion of large portion of water and created giant octopus tentacles and used them as defense.

As Aang looked, he saw Azula and a number of Dai Li prepared face him. He then looked to see Zuko and Katara struggling against the Dai Li. "There's too many…" he stated.

'_The only way is to let her go.' _Aang had remembered Guru Pathik's words.

"I'm sorry, Katara." Aang said sadly, before trapping himself within green crystals around him by earthbending. He sat down and begun meditating. He closed his eyes and began looking into inside himself. Seconds later, Aangs eyes and tattoos started glowing white indicating that Aang has now entered the Avatar state. A light had flashed and wind had blown across pushing some of the Dai Li agents back a little. Aang then rose into midair. Zuko and Katara turned their heads to see Aang in the Avatar State. Zuko wasn't surprised because this isn't the first time he had seen it. Katara smiled as she watched.

'_We'll fix that.' _Azula smirked as she watched Aang. She then started generating lightning again and moving it to her fingertips.

Zuko heard spraks, as she recognize the sound of lightning. He turned and saw this act and tried to run over to Azula to stop her, but the Dai Li had intervened keeping him back. "Don't do it!" he yelled.

"Hm?" Katara heard Zuko's plea and turned to see Zuko trying to stop Azula. She then looked at Aang and realized what he was talking about. "No… Aang!" Katara's water defenses had dropped and she stretched her hands towards Aang. Zuko was restrained by the Dai Li with crystalbending, leaving only Zuko's head open. Azula had finished charging her lightning and had finally launched it towards Aang's backside.

"No!" Zuko yelled as he watched the lightning bolt struck Aang. Katara and Zuko watched in horror as they had now witnessed Aang being struck by lightning. As Aang begun to fall from midair, Katara let out tears from her eyes in sadness. The next moment, she gathered whatever water she had left and what was surrounding her, she created a small tidal wave in the catcombs surging towards Aang's falling unconscious body. Zuko quickly disarmed himself from the Dai Li agents and rushed towards Aang's falling body.

"Ah!" Some of the Dai Li agents screamed as they were hit by Katara's tidal wave.

Katara successfully caught Aang before his body had hit the ground. "Aang. Aang! Please, wake up!" Katara begged as she embraced him. She tried to shake him, but that did not do anything. Katara wanted to believe that Aang was still alive, but she was only fooling herself. She openly cried as her tears his lifeless face knowing that he could be gone.

Zuko used enough force to break the crystal while using his firebending. After breaking free, he rushed to Aang and Katara. "Katara!" Zuko got on one knee to check on Aang's status. "Katara! How is he?" he asked with concern. Katara looked at him with tears in her eyes and shook her head no. Zuko's eyes widened in shock then turned to Azula who was smiling in confidence. He quickly stood up and created fiery daggers in his hands. "Katara. Get Aang out of here."

Katara looked up at Zuko in shock thinking that he's going to sacrifice himself. "But, what about you?"

"I'll be right behind you. I don't know how yet, but get Aang out of here as far as you can. Use that spirit water and treat his injuries. There's a chance that he could survive, but you have to leave now."

Katara remembered the spirit water she told Zuko. She then looked at Aang's lifeless face then nodded at Zuko. "Okay,"

"Neither of you we be getting out of here alive." Azula smirked.

"You've gone too far this time, Azula. I won't forgive you." Zuko said.

"Oh don't worry, Zuzu. You'll soon be joining the avatar soon enough." Azula said with confidence.

"Tch!" Zuko cringed.

As Azula and the Dai Li agents walked closer and closer getting to end the lives of Zuko and Katara, a large fireball was fired and burst in front of Azula keeping her and the Dai Li back. It was revealed that Iroh had escaped the crystals and had entered the catacombs.

"Uncle!" Zuko cried as he saw Iroh standing in front of him.

"Go! I'll hold them off as long as I can!" Iroh ordered.

"No, I won't leave you!" Zuko argued with him.

"There is no time for argue! The avatar needs you!" Iroh pointed at Aang whom was in Katara's arms. "NOW GO!" he roared as he begun blasting at the Dai Li whom is launching rocks at him.

Zuko then closed his eyes. He had no choice but to leave his uncle Iroh. His teacher. His mentor. He then looked over to Katara and moved towards her. "I got him."

"Thank you." Katara openly smiled at Zuko as she passed Aang's body to him.

They walked over to a nearby waterfall as Iroh continued to stall them. Katara used her waterbending to wrap a large swirl of water getting to launch the three of them upwards the waterfall sending them up in the air. Before they launched in the air, Zuko had watched the Dai Li trap Iroh into green crystals retraining him and had gotten one last glance at Iroh's backside whom was stalling the Dai Li. He had let a tear fall down his face as he had no choice but to leave Iroh behind. _'Thank you… Uncle.'_

Meanwhile, As Iroh remained restrained in the catacombs, he openly smiled in front of Azula, telling her that he had succeeded Zuko. "Hmph."

"What are you smiling about?" Azula asked.

"I am smiling because now, I have nothing to lose. I have succeeded in my mission."

Azula knew Iroh was talking about Zuko. "Don't worry, uncle. We'll catch your favorite traitorous Zuzu long before you know it."

"Be that as it may, but Zuko is stronger than you know. I really had loved you both equally. But then you stared seeking power. And then I watched you use fear to control people."

"Sometimes fear is what you need to control others and rule. Just look at me. I'm the princess of the Fire Nation, I infiltrated and conquered Ba Sing Se within a weeks time, while it took you months just to breach the outer walls. But when cousin Lu Ten died, you gave up." Azula stated.

"What you say is true, but I have faith in Zuko as much as I have faith in you."

"Me? Wha are you talking about?" Azula asked in confusion.

"What I am talking about is that I hope you would one day see the light of your actions. It is never too late to turn back."

"Why would I want to turn back? I have everything I need.

Azula then grew tired of hearing his words. "Take him away!" she ordered the Dai Li agents.

* * *

Meanwhile, Katara and Zuko are running down the stairs outside of the Earth Kingdom Palace. Zuko was carrying a lifeless Aang in his arms. Suddenly, Appa flew from the sky and landed onto the palace grounds. On top of Appa's back was Sokka, Toph, the Earth King Kuei and his pet bear Bosco. "Appa!" Katara called as she ran towards him.

"Hey! Katara!" Sokka waved his arm around trying to get her attention. "Huh?" he noticed something was wrong. He looked closer with his small telescope to see Zuko running behind her with Aang in his arms. "What the- Zuko!? Aang!?" he was shocked.

A few seconds, Katara and Zuko had finally made it to Appa. "Guys!" Katara said while panting.

Sokka, Toph and the Earth King saw Aang's current condition and was horrified.

"Oh dear." Kuei said in shock.

"This isn't good..." Toph noted. Toph could feel Aang's life force fading slowly.

Sokka looked at Zuko and quickly got mad and quickly pulled out his trusty sharp blue boomerang and pointed it at him. "What did you do to Aang?" Sokka interrogated him.

"I didn't do anything. I'm tried to help him and your sister..." Zuko tried to reason.

"Yeah, sure. How do I know you were not sent here to spy on us?" Sokka continued his interrogation.

Katara lowered Sokka's hands. "Stop it, Sokka! We don't have time for this!"

"Azula and the Dai Li could be following us at this moment." Zuko said.

"Zuko's right. We have to get out of here, now." Katara said.

Sokka looked closely at the stairs to see a number of Dai Li agents running down the stairs towards them. He quickly put aside his anger and decide to focuse on the situation at hand. "Right we have to go now." Sokka turned to Appa. "Appa! Yip yip!" Appa quickly let out a cry and started floated off of the ground. As soon as the Dai Li agents made it in range, they tried to shoot Appa down, but the attempt ended in failure. Appa and the others had already flown off into the sky.

As Katara and the others were out of range, Zuko quickly passed Aang's lifeless body to Katara. She pulled out a small vial from her clothing. Katara hesitated for a second as she looked at Aang's lifeless face, then she looked at Zuko. Zuko had already knew what she wanted to do with it. "Do it."

Katara wanted to use the spirit oasis water to heal his scar, but the water was to be used for a greater purpose. Katara nodded at him. She pulled his backside forward and opened the the vial's cap. The spirit oasis water spiraled into a ring. Sokka and Zuko watched Katara do her work. She then placed the spirit water in his fatal wound. Katara silently cried as she hugged him. A flash of light appeared through Aang's tattoos. Aang moaned as he begun to regain consciousness.

"Katara..." Aang said before resting his head onto Appa's fur.

Katara gasped as she heard his voice. She layed him on his back to see him smiling at her. Sokka and Zuko couldn't believe their eyes. Aang had survived a fatal blow. Toph couldn't feel Aang due to being in the air, but she somewhat felt that Aang was going to live. She had smiled lightly.

* * *

The Dai Li agents then walked back all the way up the stairs and walked to the Earth King's throne room where Azula sat in the Earth King's throne. Mai and Ty Lee were at Azula's side. The agents kneeled to her with their heads lowered. "Princess Azula. We failed to capture the enemies and traitor Zuko."

"No matter." Azula said calmly.

"Princess Azula?" The Dai Li agent in front looked up to her.

"He may have gotten away tonight, but he will have no place to hide by tomorrow. He will be known as a international criminal throughout both Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation." Azula then told them to leave with a hand gesture. "Leave me." The Dai Li agents then stood up and left her presence.

"Azula, I can't believe your brother would ever go rogue. And I thought being banished was bad enough." Ty Lee pouted.

Mai stood in silence and looked at the floor. _'Why... Zuko?' _Azula caught a glimpse of Mai's face from the side. Azula started to notice that Mai might still have a shred of feelings for the rogue prince Zuko.

* * *

As Team Avatar were leaving the outskirts of Ba Sing Se, Earth King Kuei couldn't help but look back at the city he ruled from the palace. "The Earth Kingdom... has fallen." he said in grief.

Zuko couldn't help but look back as well. He remembered the time he spent in Ba Sing Se until this very moment. Zuko remembered entering the city, started working in a tea shop with his uncle Iroh, fighting Jet, going on his first date with Jin, upgrading into his new apartment, freeing Appa, working in Iroh's new Jasmine Dragon Tea Shop, facing Azula once again, reuniting with Katara, fighting Azula once again. _'I regret nothing.' _Zuko turned his head forward as they pass the outer wall of Ba Sing Se.

* * *

**Hello everyone. This is my first Avatar story. I decided to make this story for fun. Book Two is my favorite Season. I wanted to do a what if Zuko sided with Team Avatar in Book Two instead of Book Three. For those whom are wondering, I am fully aware that I am not the first person to make this what if story****. I am doing this story my own way and because I want to. To avoid copywright, I'm gonna skip certain scenes and adventurers from the story because it doesn't make sense to rewrite them. **


	2. The Awakening

**Summary: Last time, Zuko was stuck in the crossroads of his own destiny and tried to decide which is right and wrong. Finally, he made up his mind and decided to turn his back on his own nation and joined Team Avatar. During the battle, Aang was fatally wounded and Team Avatar had no choice but to retreat Ba Sing Se with the Earth King in grief. With the Earth Kingdom now under control of the Fire Nation, Zuko, known as the Banished Prince is now known to the world as the Traitorous Prince. Word of Zuko's treachery had spread throughout the Fire Nation like a wildfire. A few weeks had passed and Team Avatar is still on the run.**

* * *

Avatar Aang whom is now lying on the bed in agony. Aang has a full head of short dark brown hair on his head. The arrow on his forehead was still visible. He had bandages wrapped around his lower torso, left knee, right shin, left triceps tendon, right shoulder and over left collarbone. He still wore his yellow air nomad pants, but parts of it was torn off. After a few seconds of groaning, he opened his eyes to look left and right. As he sat up on the edge of the bed, he was groaning from the pain that he had received from Azula in the Catacombs. "Where am I? What happened?" he questioned as he placed a hand on his torso. As he looked. "Ah!" He gasped as he looked around the room only to see all sorts of stuff in the room belonging to the Fire Nation. He then turned around to see a large Fire Nation banner. "Oh no!"

Aang quickly got off of the bed, grabbed his staff and rushed to the door. He cracked the metal door slightly open to see if anyone was around but no one was there. He was still injured, he couldn't walk like normal, so used his own staff as a crutch to walk. As walked to a corner, he poked his head out and saw two people dressed as Fire Navy soldiers.

"You hear something?" One of the soldiers asked.

Aang quickly pulled his head back. He gripped his staff and swung it blowing a gust air at the two soldiers, only to temporarily slow them down. Aang tried to limp to a safe place.

"He's awake!" One of the soldiers said as they chased after them. "Stop! Wait!" The soldier tried to Aang to stop, but he wouldn't listen.

Aang had finally made it to the stairs. He took a deep breath and tried to jump to the top. "Argh!" he groaned as he jumped. "Ugh!" Aang landed on his stomach as he made a thud. The staff Aang had clutched had left his hand. As he tried to reach for it, he saw two Fire Navy soldiers feeding his pet flying lemur Momo nuts. "Momo?"

Momo and the two Fire Navy soldiers turned their heads to see Aang. Momo squealed and quickly jumped onto Aang's shoulder and start licking his cheek.

"Twinkle toes! It's gotta be you!" yelled a familiar voice. Aang looked to see Katara and Toph in cloaks run to him.

"Aang! You're awake!" Katara said with happiness. The Fire Navy soldiers that Aang saw was none other than Hakoda whom is Sokka and Katara's father, Bato whom is one of Hakoda's best friends, The Duke and Pipsqueak. There were two dressed in old fashioned Fire Nation armor with white masks on their faces. The taller one was Zuko and the shorter was Sokka.

"Are you sure? I feel like I'm dreaming…" Aang asked as he rubbed his eyes.

Katara quickly hugged him and smiled. "You're not dreaming. You're finally awake."

"Aang! Good to see you back with the living, buddy!" Sokka said as he hugged Aang.

"Sokka?" Aang started to feel dizzy for a second.

Toph knew Aang was about to collapse at any second. "Uh oh. Somebody catch him, he's gonna—" Katara tried to catch him, but was a little slow. Instead, Zuko was the one who caught Aang from behind. "Oh. You caught him." Toph then sighed in relief.

Minutes later, as Aang had regained consciousness, Aang had sat down with tea in his hands. Appa lied down next to him, Katara sat down in front of him while Zuko, Sokka, Toph and Hakoda stood over him.

"So, why are we on a Fire Nation ship? Why is everyone dressed this way? What is Zuko doing here? And why am I the only one who's completely out of it?" Aang asked a number of questions.

"You need to take it easy, okay? You got hurt pretty bad." Katara replied. She then smiled. "I like your hair."

Aang's eyes had widened in shock after hearing Katara's words. He then touched his face and felt hair on his head. "I have hair!? How long was I out?" he asked in shock.

"A few weeks." Katara answered.

"I think we should all get some sleep. We've been out patrolling for other Fire Navy ships for hours." Zuko said and everyone turned to him.

"Zuko? Why are you wearing that armor?" Aang asked.

"To protect my identity. I'm a wanted man." Zuko said normally.

"I think you should take off the helmet." Aang suggested.

"Why?"

"Because… if you're really one us, I may as well get to know your face." Aang said.

"Yeah, you should show Aang your face." Katara said.

Zuko sighed. "Fine." Aang looked closely as Zuko slowly took off his Fire Nation helmet.

"!" Aang gasped as Zuko took it off. What Aang had saw was that Zuko now has a shaved head. Aang had always known Zuko with a ponytail, but not being completely bald. "Z-Zuko! You're b-b-ba-b-bal—" he stuttered.

"I know! Just say it!" Zuko said irritatedly.

"BAAAAAALLLLDD!" Aang yelled at the top of his lunges.

"Shhh!" Everyone quickly shushed Aang. "Keep it down! Do you want them to find us?" Zuko yelled in a quiet voice.

"Sorry," Aang scratched his head a bit. "It just takes me back. When we met, you had a ponytail and I was bald. Now it feels like the polar opposite."

"I agree." Zuko replied.

"That's right. We're trying stay out of sight." Katara said.

"Is everything okay?" Hakoda walked next to Katara.

"Yeah. We're fine dad." Katara answered annoyed.

Hakoda offered Aang a hand. "I'm Hakoda. Katara and Sokka's father."

Aang tried to get up, but Katara sits Aang back down. "He knows who you are, I just called you dad. Didn't I?" Katara looked at Hakoda with annoyance.

Hakoda couldn't help but think that Katara's not in the mood. "Oh. I guess you're right."

Aang removed Katara's and from his shoulder and offered Hakoda a hand. "Nice to meet you, Katara and Sokka's father—I mean, Chief Hakoda. I'm Aang."

"It's an honor to meet the Avatar." Hakoda responded by grasping Aang's tricep.

"Great, great. You guys had finally met. Now could you mind giving us a little privacy?" Katara asked in a bitter tone.

"Of course." Hakoda decided to respect her wishes as he looked at Katara with a little sadness, then suddenly glared at Zuko before walking to Appa.

As Aang watched Hakoda left, he turned to Katara whom was looking at her father leave as in good riddance. "Katara, are you mad at your dad?"

Katara then turned to Aang. "What? Not at all, why would you say that?" Katara answered his question with a question.

Aang shrugged his shoulders a little. "I just see the way you look at him. I remember back in Ba Sing Se you were excited to meet your dad after receiving a letter. Now that he's here, it's like you don't want him around." Aang said.

"Aang... It's complicated." Katara said.

"Well, I'll leave it to you and your dad to sort this out." Aang slowly stood and used his staff as a crutch again. "I'll be going back to my room now." He slowly walked towards the stairs.

"Hey Aang, let me help you." Sokka offered Aang help.

"Gee thanks, Sokka." Aang replied as Sokka helped Aang down the stairs.

"He's right, Katara. You should let your dad into your life." Zuko said as he approached Katara from behind.

"Why? Are you curious about my relationship with my dad?" Katara turned and stared at Zuko.

"No. Not really. But I know this." Zuko raised a finger. "You've wanted to see your dad for a long time now. Now that he's here, you have a chance to spend time with him. Your dad loves you, while my dad had banished me."

"And your point is?" Katara raised an eyebrow.

"The point I'm trying to make is, you have a family. Don't throw it away. Otherwise, you'll only regret it later on. Enjoy what's in front of you." Zuko gave Katara family advise.

"Wow Zuko. I never thought you would say anything like that. I guess you really did take your uncle's advice." Katara asked.

"What do you mean by that?"

Katara giggled. "Oh, nothing. It's just… so nice you care for someone else than yourself. Also, you've been helping around a lot. I'd like to say thank you, Zuko." Katara gave a bright warm smile to Zuko.

As Zuko saw her smile and met her gaze. He suddenly felt his heart skip a beat for no real reason. What he himself wasn't sure of. He blushed like crazy as he met her gaze. "Uh, n-no! I don't know what you're talking about!" Hakoda tried denied as he turned around with his feet together and his arms by his side.

As Zuko and Katara continued their conversation, Katara's father Hakoda was watching the two of them while he stood next to Bato. Hakoda glared at Zuko from a distance. He started to et those overprotective dad vibes.

"What's wrong, chief?" Bato asked. Hakoda did not reply. Bato then realized that Hakoda is starring at Zuko from a distance. "Ah, I see. Now I know why Katara asked for some privacy." Bato placed a hand on Hakoda's shoulder.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Hakoda asked as he turned to his best friend.

"I think I know what's going on. You're getting… those vibes." Bato teased.

"What vibes?"

"Oh come on, you knew this day would day would come." Bato wrapped his arm around Hakoda's neck and reeled him closer.

"I still don't know what you're talking about." Hakoda tried to deny his best friend's words.

"I think Katara actually likes Zuko." Bato said.

"Why are you telling me this?" Hakoda asked as he brushed his hand off.

"Come on, when we were younger, we both always had eyes for her mother Kya-."

"Please don't mention her." Hakoda said looking down.

"Anyway, we have always competed for her. You told me a hundred times over that you were going to win her heart, and somehow, you did. And you started a family with her."

"And your point is?"

"Look. My point is. Katara is about that age right now, and someone like Zuko or the Avatar might steal her heart."

"But, why Zuko of all people?"

"Ever since Katara was a little girl, she had despised the Fire Nation ever since they attacked the south pole. And now, she doesn't mind being around Zuko, whom is a banished Prince of the Fire Nation. Besides, Katara isn't the only one who lost her mother… Zuko lost his too."

'_You're right. I just want what's best for her. I don't want to get in the way of her future, that's all.' _Hakoda thought.

Toph walked over to Hakoda and Bato. "Getting those 'I'm gonna be overprotective over my daughter vibes?'

"What? H-how did you know?" Hakoda asked as he looked down at Toph.

"Trust me. My parents wouldn't even let met outside of the house at all without supervision." Toph said. Hakoda then looked at Katara whom was now heading back inside of the ship and then narrowed towards Zuko whom was looking at the water.

* * *

The next day, in the Fire Nation Capital, there holds a celebration. Two elderly women named Lo and Li whom were Azula's advisers had stood on top of a building where a large torch was lit. Thousands of Fire Nation soldiers and citizens standing below. Lo and Li decided to share and finish each other's words. "Princess Azula. The Clever and the Beautiful disguised herself as the enemy and entered the Earth Kingdom's capital! In Ba Sing Se, she found her brother Zuko, he betrayed his own nation and he sided with the Avatar!"

"BOOOOOOO!" The crowd gave out loud boo's for Zuko. Inside of that crowd was Mai, whom had a crush on Zuko looked emotionless. She decided to keep quiet as the crowd continued to detest Zuko.

"The bad news... is that the Banished Prince has now turned into the Traitor Prince, and is still on the run!" the boo's from the crowd had gotten louder. "But the good news is that the Avatar fell! As the Earth Kingdom fell!" Azula had now walked to the edge of the balcony where she has presented herself in front of thousands of her people. "Now the hero has returned! Princess Azula!" the boo's from the crowd had now turned into cheers.

Azula had remained silent. _'Don't worry, Zuzu. You can run all you want, but you won't be able to hide. I will find you.'_

* * *

Meanwhile, on the stolen Fire Navy ship, Zuko, Hakoda and Bato were eating soup while standing. Toph, Katara, and Aang were sitting on the floor while Sokka were sitting on crates with his helmet beside him. "After the what happened in Ba Sing Se, we had to get you to safety." Sokka explained everything he knew to Aang. Sokka showed Aang a map. "Since then, we've been traveling west. We crossed the Serpent's Pass a few days ago. We've seen a few Fire Navy ships, but none have bothered us."

"So, what now?" Aang asked in concern.

"We've been working on a modified version on the invasion plan." Hakoda said as everyone turned to him.

"It's Sokka's... invasion plan." Katara said rudely.

"Yes. Sokka's plan." Hakoda said a little down. He then turned back to Aang. "We won't be able to mount the mass invasion without the Earth King's armies, but the Solar Eclipse will still leave the Fire Nation vulnerable."

Sokka rolled up the map. "So, we're planning a smaller invasion. Just a bunch of friends we met in the Earth Kingdom. We already ran into Pipsqueak and The Duke." Aang turned his head to the two.

The Duke was sitting on Pipsqueak's shoulder and the both of them were eating chunks of food. "Good to see you Aang." Pipsqueak spoke with his mouth full.

"And the worst part is... the Eclipse isn't our biggest advantage." Sokka then decided to whisper. "We have a secret. You."

"Me?" Aang muttered.

"Yep. The whole world thinks you're dead. Isn't that great?" Sokka stood up in excitement.

Aang stood in complete shock after hearing Sokka's words. A few minutes later, Aang stood up. "Wait the world thinks' I'm dead? How is that good news? It's terrible!" Aang yelled.

"No, it's great! It means the Fire Nation won't be hunting us anymore." Sokka accidentally excluded Zuko. "Well, I mean except Zuko." Zuko grumbled as Sokka excluded him. "They won't even expect you during the Day of Black Sun."

"No, no, no! You have no idea! This is so messed up!" Aang said all frustrated. Out of nowhere, a horn blew and everyone looked to see a Fire Navy ship coming their way. "Alright. The Avatar is back..." Aang took his staff and opened the wings to it. "Ngh!" Aang groaned and clutched his stomach as he felt some pain. He then tries to prepare himself to fly.

"Aang wait! The Fire Nation doesn't know that we're hear!" Katara pleaded.

Aang sighed then put up his staff. "Fine."

"Everyone just stay calm. We'll handle this." Hakoda said as he placed his helmet on his head.

"They're getting closer. Everyone! Take cover!" Zuko ordered everyone to move into hiding spots except Bato and Hakoda.

The Duke and Pipsqueak placed a giant blanket over Appa's body and Momo hid inside of the pit as well. While Aang, Katara, Zuko, Sokka and Toph hid in one of the other pits.

"I hate not being able to do anything." Aang detested.

"Hopefully, you won't need to." Toph said.

The two Fire Navy ships stopped moving for a moment. A metal bridge had dropped itself onto the ship where Team Avatar held hostage. A Fire Nation Officer and two of his lackeys had walked across the bridge and entered the hostage ship. Hakoda and Bato started a conversation with the officer. The officer began to leave and his lackeys begun to head back to their ship suspiciously. Toph had listened to them talking to one another closely as they crossed the bridge. Toph heard them talking about that they were on a captured ship and they were going to sink it. Toph's blind eyes had widened and she ran out of the open and screamed. "They know!" Toph quickly metalbended the bridge causing it to collapse with the three soldiers on top of the bridge to fall in the water below.

Katara quickly ran out and bended a huge body of water between them and pushed the wave towards other ship away from theirs. The Fire Navy soldiers from the other ships realized that the other ship was captured, so they started from their modernized catapult with flaming boulders and started launching them at the captured ship. Toph had encountered these flaming rocks with ammunition of disk-like boulders that The Duke and Pipsqueak presented. Sokka and Zuko were taked with keeping Aang safe inside of the ship. Aang would want to run out there, but Zuko and Sokka would try to reason with him.

One of the flaming boulders that the other ship had launched had hit Toph's ammunition of disk-like boulders causing them to crumble into chunks. "That's not good." Toph said as her blind eyes widened. One of the flaming boulders had launched itself and it hit the hull of the ship, causing a small fire. Katara quickly used the sea to waterbend and tried to put out the fire. Aang was irritated that he was out of the action. "That's it! I can't just stand around any longer!" Aang yelled as he ran out the door.

"Aang, wait!" Sokka went after him and grabbed Aang's staff, and Aang responded by frowning at Sokka. "Look, I get it. You want to help right now, but you can't. You're still hurt. "Look, Katara and Toph got it."

"But what about Zuko? He's a firebender. He should be able to take some of them out!" Aang argued.

Sokka then rubbed his back and looked down. "You see, about that..."

"What!? Zuko can't firebend anymore!? When? How?" Aang interrogated Sokka.

"Look, now's not the time for that. You have to get to safety, now." Sokka pointed at the door.

Aang glared at him for a few seconds before snatching his staff back. "Fine." Aang had lost the argument and walked back to the door. Sokka then sighed.

"We're out of ammo!" Toph yelled as she ran to the group.

"That's not good." Zuko said.

"Sokka, how's it looking?" Katara asked her brother as she continued to try and put out the fire.

"This couldn't get any worse, could it?" Sokka responded as he looked at the ship being damaged. All of a sudden out of nowhere, he heard a loud screeching noise from behind and looked to see the giant green serpent from the Serpent's Pass had risen up from the water. "The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it?" he asked in pity.

"You make it too easy!" Toph yelled.

"What is that?" Zuko asked as he looked at it.

"Long story, now run!" Sokka told Zuko. The serpent was able to recognize some members of Team Avatar and was ready to attack, but then it was hit in the face with a flaming boulder by the other ship. The serpent spotted them in rage and screeched loudly, causing the people around it to cover their ears. The serpent left the captured ship alone and quickly dashed towards the opposing ship. The serpent the rapped its body around the ship, like a snake suffocating its prey.

"Thank you, the universe!" Sokka thanked the serpent as it kept the other ship busy.

"So, that must be the serpent guarding the pass?" Zuko asked Toph.

"Yep." Toph playfully punched Zuko in the arm.

A couple of hours later, Team Avatar had finally found land and the ship had finally stopped at a docks for repairs and rest. Aang sat in his room and lied on top of his bed thinking about what to do next. Suddenly, the metal door had opened and Aang's friends Katara, Sokka, Toph and Zuko had walked into his room. The latters had on Fire Nation robes and Zuko had wore a large eyepatch black which covered his scar on his left eye. "Oh good, you're awake, twinkletoes. We're going into town to get some grub." Toph said.

Aang then clutched his grumbling stomach. "I am kind of hungry. Maybe dinner's a good idea.

Sokka then pulled out a red sash and tried to present it to Aang. "Put this on. It will hide your arrow."

Aang looked at the sash with disgust. "I'm not going out if I can't wear my arrow proudly!" he lied back down on the bed.

"Aang, come on. Be practical. Just look at Zuko. He has a scar and he was bold enough to hide it by wearing an eyepatch." Sokka tried to reason, but Aang had covered his ears.

Katara placed a hand on Sokka's shoulder. "You guys can go without us. We'll catch up." Sokka, Toph and Zuko proceeded to go on without them. But Zuko then decided to wait outside of the door. Zuko decided to listen to their conversation. As he heard Katara getting closer to the door, she turned her head to ask if Aang needed anything. That's when Zuko decided to leave without being spotted. Minutes later, Katara had left the ship where she spotted Zuko waiting on her.

"Toph and Sokka already went ahead of us. Sokka told me to tell you that they're going to a diner."

"Thanks for waiting on me." Katara thanked Zuko.

They started walking together into town and Zuko sees the downed look on her face. "How did it go?" he asked in concern.

"Not good. He also said he needed to restore his honor."

"Honor, huh?"

"Yes. He has this ridiculous notion to save this world alone."

"Do you think it's just him being brave?" Zuko asked.

"It's not brave! It's selfish and stupid!" Katara shouted, not knowing she was in public, she accidentally caught the attention of many people who are starring at them.

"Uh... what are y'all looking at!" Zuko yelled trying to draw less attention. People got back to what they were doing, and they duo continued to walk elsewhere.

"Thanks for that." Katara said.

"I think I understand where he's coming from." Zuko tried to relate to Aang's notions. He remembered back to all of the times he chased after Aang.

"He has us, right? I mean why? Why does he have to go to such extremes? I know the world needs him, but doesn't he know how much we need him too?" Katara said acting a little emotional.

"It's really a heavy burden. He feels like there's a lot of pressure being placed onto him. He doesn't want to let his friends or anyone down."

"What makes you say that?" Katara asked.

"You see, I was a banished prince. Back when I was hunting him, I tried to do everything alone. But, I had my uncle who supported me. I cared about nothing else, but capturing Aang just to restore my honor. Aang probably feels the same way. He feels like he needs to stop my father alone. He'll probably realize that he's going to need us. Just as much as we need him."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Zuko smiled at her. Katara then clutched onto his arm, making people thinking that they're a couple as they walk by. Zuko couldn't help but blush.

* * *

Meanwhile, Azula had walked into the dark throne room, where there are many pillars and the stage were burning with flames. A dark silhouette had appeared within the flames. A man, whom was the Fire Lord himself. As she got close enough, she bowed down on her hands and knees and showed respect to her father, the Fire Lord Ozai. "Well done capturing Ba Sing Se, my daughter." Ozai praised his bowing daughter.

Azula raised her head. "Yes. After a hundred years, WE the Fire Nation has finally conquered the Earth Kingdom."

"Yes. All there is left is the Northern and the Southern Water Tribe standing in our way." Ozai said calmly.

"And there is... another thing I have to tell you." she said as she narrowed her eyes to the left.

"I already know about your brother's treachery." Ozai had stood up.

"You do?" Azula asked surprised.

"I had sent agents of my own to Ba Sing Se. Their job was to watch and to make sure you have succeeded. And you have." Ozai explained.

_'How could I not know that?' _Azula thought as she looked down at her shadow. "Father. What do we do about Zuko?"

"Your brother is a full-blown traitor. I shall send a reward to whomever catches him, whether they are citizens or mercenaries. Within a few days time, the whole world will be looking for him. He shall spend the rest of his days running. And if anyone tries to shelter or aid him, not only Zuko, but they will face my WRATH!" Ozai yelled and the burning stage had lit itself up with a lighting color. Azula had no choice but to place her arm over her eyes to avoid the flaming light.

"Father. There's something you should know. The invasion..."

"Yes. I am quite aware of the invasion."

_'How long has he have been watching me?' _Azula wondered.

Ozai had walked off of the burning stage and approached his daughter. "Rise." Ozai ordered and Azula quickly stood on her two feet. "The rebellions tend to use the Solar Eclipse to their advantage. Our firebending will be nullified, but we have something to encounter their power."

"You really think so, father?" Azula gazed into his golden eyes.

"Of course. With the Avatar dead, they are just a handful of rebels trying to break down my front door." Ozai said.

"Wow. That's really a good reference, father."

"Now come, Azula. We must plan for the invasion." Ozai had begun walking to the door.

"Yes father." Azula answered obediently slowly followed him.

* * *

A few hours had passed. Katara had entered Aang's room with a tray of food. "Aang. I brought you something to eat. Do you li-" Katara looked around and realized Aang was gone. "!" Katara gasped, dropped the tray and ran out of the room. Aang had left the ship and flew off somewhere.

The next morning, Aang was lying on the shores close to a crescent island volcano with a volcano in the middle knocked out. The waves of pushed and pulled in that order. The volcano had multiple small streams of lava. The next thing, Momo had glided and landed on Aang's face, licking his cheek. Aang moaned before opening his eyes. "Momo? What are you dong here?" Aang sat up groaning still from the pain in his chest.

"Aang!" yelled a familar voice.

"Eh?" Aang looked to the left to see Katara running straight for him, Toph, Sokka, Appa and Zuko right behind her. "Katara?" he muttered.

"Aang!" Katara quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and let out a stream of tears. Sokka, Toph, Momo and Zuko joined the group hug while and Appa leaned his face in.

Aang then came to realization. "I have so much to do."

"I know. We'll be there to help."

"You didn't think you can get out of training, just because we're in the Fire Nation, did you twinkletoes?" Toph asked while teasing.

"Mm mm." Aang nodded his head no.

"That's right. We're in the Fire Nation."

"But Zuko, you don't you know your way around the Fire Nation?" Sokka asked as he looked at Zuko.

"Yeah. But it won't be easy. The world's probably gonna be looking for us now."

Aang scratched his head. "Oh yeah. That reminds me... there's something I have to ask." Aang remembered something important.

"What's that?" Zuko asked.

"Zuko can't firebend anymore!?" Aang pointed at Zuko in shock.

Zuko scratched the back of his head. "Uh. Yeah. It's kind of a long story."

Toph then felt something light bump into her fro behind. "Hey. What's thi-" She picked it up and gave it to Aang. "Oh. It's your glider." Aang's glider was badly damaged during the storm.

Aang looked at it in relief. "That's okay. If someone saw it, it would give away my identity. I know that now. It's better for people to think that I'm dead than have them think that I'm alive." Aang then jumped high onto the rock with streaming lava. _'Goodbye, old friend.' _Aang looked at his glider one final time before twirling it into the air at great speed and striking it into the rock. Aang jumped back down to join his friends while his glider had burned into ash.


	3. The Headband

**Summary: Last time, Aang had survived his critical injuries from Ba Sing Se. The whole world thinks that the Avatar is dead. Zuko got a new look and Aang had grown hair. He was against the idea of hiding in secret, but learned to accept it.**

* * *

In the dawn, the sun had risen and Appa had flown into the mid thin air for countless hours. Aang and Katara had bended a large fog-like cloud big enough to surround Appa's giant body as he flew pass many islands. Sokka remained on the lookout, while Toph and Zuko were sleeping.

"I see a cave below!" Aang yelled.

As Aang said that, Appa flew closer to the waters until he saw an abandoned island with a cave.

"Shh! Keep quiet!" Sokka said in a sneaky tone.

Katara released the clouds, revealing Aang bending a large sphere of wind surrounding Appa's body, the pushed his hands forward, releasing the wind. The native Puffins squawked as the felt the wave hit them, then flew off. Sokka quickly jumped off the saddle, tied to Appa's back and hid behind a few rocks under stealth, staying alert.

"Great job with the cloud camo, but next time, let's disguise ourselves as the kind of cloud who knows how to keep its mouth shut." Sokka suggested, as he crossed his arms.

Toph and Zuko slid off of Appa's tail, while Aang and Katara climbed down Appa's side and walked towards Sokka. "Yeah. We wouldn't want any birds to hear us and turn us in…" Toph said sarcastically.

"Hey. We're in enemy territory. Those are enemy birds." Sokka pointed.

"Those are just native puffins. They're harmless." Zuko stated.

Suddenly, one of the birds hops on top of Sokka's head and squawked. The gang giggled. As they were walking to the abandoned cave, Sokka leaped like a frog and landed face first into the dirt.

"What are you doing, Sokka?" Katara asked as she looked down at her brother.

"Can't you tell? I'm making sure there aren't any booby traps." Sokka whispered, as Katara sighed. The group continued to walk until they made it inside the cave.

"This is place seems dark and lonely." Zuko commented.

"You said it. Not me." Toph replied.

Sokka turned to his group. "Well, this is it. This is where we're going to live until the invasion begins."

"By living in a cave?" Aang asked.

"Well, yeah. Living in cave, after cave, after cave…" As the more times Sokka said cave, he started getting depressed and hung his head downwards.

"Sokka, we don't need to become cave people," Katara looked down at her dirty attire. "What we need is some new clothes."

Aang placed his hands on his hips. "Yeah. Blending in is better than hiding out. If we get Fire Nation disguises, we'll be as safe as hiding in a cave." Aang smiled, as Momo's ears shot up.

"Plus, they have real food out there," Toph said, as she lied on rocks, as if she was lying on a couch. "Does anyone want to sit in the dirt and eat cavehoppers?" Toph backhanded a wall, and a dozen white cave hoppers shot up out of their hiding place and started hopping around. Momo caught one of them and started devouring its torso.

Zuko was a little grossed. "Not me."

"Looks like we got outvoted, sport." Sokka told Momo.

"Alright. We're getting new clothes." Zuko said.

* * *

As the fives teens ventured across the island, they discovered a house with smoke coming from dirt holes and native Fire Nation clothes hanging from a group of hangers, drying. There was also a nearby waterfall. The five teens crawled in hiding, as they stared at the native clothing, lying in wait.

"I don't know about this. These clothes belong to somebody." Aang started getting second thoughts.

"I call the silk robe!" Katara yelled as she ran forward and grabbed whatever clothing she needed.

"My turn!" Zuko went after and grabbed a man's shirt and pants that could git him properly.

"Well, if it's essential to our survival," Aang smiled. "Then I call the suit."

Aang jumped from behind the rocks and grabbed an academy suit. Toph and Sokka went after Aang and grabbed whatever clothing they needed. There was a man on watch duty, but was too busy catching z's. Shortly after, the group fled the scene and tried on new native clothes.

"Tada! A normal kid." Aang said after tying a bandanna to his forehead.

"This isn't the best clothing you can get in the Fire Nation, but it'll do." Zuko said as he looked down at his attire.

"Hm. I should probably wear shoes, but I wouldn't be able to see as well," Toph sat on a rock. "Sorry shoes." Toph kicked forward, causing the flippers to shoot and hit Sokka's face.

"Ow." Sokka squeaked.

"Finally," Toph stood. "A stylish shoe for the blind earthbender." she said with confidants.

"How do I look?" Katara stepped from behind the rock and approached her friends with her new attire. She wore a one-strapped top, exposing her stomach and navel, dark purple trousers under her bright red skirt, with golden bracelets and armbands and she wore her mother's necklace.

Zuko and Aang were stunned at her appearance. Zuko coughed a little while Aang rubbed the back the back of his head.

"Is there something wrong, Zuko?" Katara caught him staring.

"N-no. It's just... your hair." he answered.

"What about my hair?"

"My mother used to wear it in that particular fashion." Zuko answered honestly.

Katara blushed a little. "Oh, I get it." she said as she held a piece of her hair.

"Um, your mother's necklace." Aang pointed out.

"Oh, right," Katara removed the Water Tribe necklace around her neck. "I guess it's pretty much Water Tribe, isn't it?" she softly grasped the necklace in her fist.

"Let's find some grub!" Sokka yelled in excitement.

* * *

Inside of a prison cell lied Iroh, whom was sitting on the cold ground, staring at roaches. He wore a dark grey robe, his beard is bigger, the hair on his head has gotten longer, but not on the absolute top, except the center of his head where he is bald. Suddenly a door had opened and someone had walked in the room.

"Good to see, Iroh," Azula said as she walked in. "You look better than before."

"..." Iroh remained silent and moved his body to another side of a wall.

"Playing the silent treatment, are you? Good." she smiled. "I don't want you to talk. Just listen what I have to say," Azula walked closer to Iroh's cell. I may not know where Zuko is right about now, but it's only a matter of time until we catch him. Father has placed a bounty on his head for betraying the entire Nation. Everyone all around the world will be looking for him, and there's not a thing you can do to help him."

Iroh still remained silent.

"You should know that treason against the Fire Nation is punishable by death. First, we'll execute you, then your favorite nephew."

"He's still your brother." Iroh muttered.

"I don't care. He's no brother of mine," Azula began to walk towards the door. "He'll suffer the same punishment as you when we find him." Azula said with confidence." she closed the door behind herself and turned to a guard. "Make sure he doesn't eat for at least three days."

"Yes ma'am."

* * *

Meanwhile, Aang and the others were inside of a shop purchasing for accessories. Katara wore a Fire Nation necklace, Toph wore a golden tiara on her head, Sokka tied an accessory onto his head, Zuko wore a beany hat with a Fire Nation symbol on the front and Aang stuffed a curled up Momo in his vest. They hid behind a corner of a house, waiting for Aang.

"I used to visit my friend, Kuzon here a hundred years ago. Everyone just follow my lead and stay cool. Or should I say... Stay Flaming."

Zuko facepalmed himself in annoyance after hearing that boring line. _'No one says that anymore.'_

"Greetings, my good hot man!" Aang said as he passed by a middle-aged man enjoying a ca bob.

"Uh, hi... I guess."

_'This just couldn't get any worse.' _Zuko thought as he passed the guy.

The gang suddenly stopped at a meat restaurant.

"We're going to a meat place?" Aang asked.

"Come on, Aang. Everyone here eats meat," Sokka points at the giant cowhippo eating large chunks of ham. "Even the meat eats meat."

Aang was discusted after watching the cowhippo eating rotten meat. "You guys go ahead. I'll just get something out of the garbage."

"Are you sure?" Zuko asked.

"Yeah. You see, I'm a vegetarian." Aang admitted.

"Alright. You know where to find us." Zuko entered the restaurant last.

"Ah!" Zuko went back outside a few seconds just to check on Aang only to see him be dragged away by Fire Nation guards.

"Uh oh."

* * *

Later that day during the dusk, Aang had arrived at the cave where Appa was resting and Zuko, Toph and Katara were sitting at a camp fire.

"Where have you been? We were worried sick!"" Katara questioned.

Zuko quickly walked up to Aang. "Did they find out about your identity?" he asked worriedly.

"What?" Katara asked.

"Early today, Aang was taken by guards." Zuko explained.

Sokka jump up in surprise. "Wait, what!?" Sokka dashed towards Aang. "You didn't get caught, did you!"

Aang shook his head no. "No. They had no clue. It turns out the guards thought I was playing hooky, so they took me to a Fire Nation school, and I enrolled. I'm going back tomorrow." Aang grinned as he removed his headband.

The rest of the group had shocked looks on their faces, especially Sokka.

"Enrolled in what!?" Sokka quickly dropped to the floor.

Minutes later, they all sat down at the campfire.

"Aang, I'm trying to be mature not to shoot on your ideals, but it sounds real... terrible." Sokka said honestly.

"Yeah. We have outfits. We do you need to go to SCHOOL for?" Toph's eyes widened when she said the word "school".

"Every minute I'm in that classroom, I'm learning new things. I already have a picture of Fire Lord Ozai," Aang showed the group Ozai's picture. "And here's one that I made out of noodles." he showed the group the noodle sculptured picture of Ozai. Zuko quickly detested the pictures, he quickly snatched the pictures from Aang and threw them into the campfire.

"Hey!" Aang yelled at Zuko.

"What was that for, Zuko?" Katara asked in confusion.

"Sorry. I'm just not very fond of my father right now." Zuko answered.

"Someone's having daddy issues." Toph giggled.

Sokka placed a hand on his chin in cleverness. "Good thinking, Zuko," he turned to Zuko. "But I still think it's too dangerous." he detested against Aang.

Aang's eyes shifted to the right. "I guess we will never find out about the secret river then... It goes right to the Fire Lord's palace. We were supposed to learn it in class tomorrow but-"

"Did you just say secret rivers?" Zuko asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I only know a few of them that leads to my father's palace. I haven't been there for three years. It's most likely blocked off or guarded." Zuko explained.

"Hm. I am a fan of secret rivers," Sokka thought it through. "Fine. Let's stay a few more days."

Aang jumped up from a rock. "Yes! Flameo hotman!" he ran to his side of the cave.

"Please stop talking like that." Zuko muttered.

"I don't know. I'm starting to like his new accent. Flamey boy." Toph joked as she nudged Zuko in the arm.

"Please don't call me that again." Zuko asked nicely.

"By the way, just to be clear. There are a thing called secret rivers, right?" Sokka asked and Zuko nodded.

* * *

The next day.

"That settles it. No more school for you, young man!" Sokka said as he is acting like a parent, as he is stroking his fake beard.

"But I'm not ready to leave. I'm having fun for once," aang stood up and began walking towards Appa. "I'm getting to be a normal kid. You don't know what it's like, Sokka. You get to be normal all the time."

"Haha!" Toph mocked Sokka, which caused him to scowl at her.

"Listen, guys. Those kids at school are the future of the Fire Nation. If we want to change this place for the better, we have to show them a taste of freedom." Aang protested.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Zuko asked.

"You'll see." Aang answered.

"What could you possibly do for a country of depraved little fire monsters?" Sokka grumbled, then thought about Zuko's feelings. "No offense or anything, Zuko."

"None taken." Zuko replied.

Sokka turned his head back to Aang. "Well? What it is?"

"I'm going to throw them... A secret dance party!" Aang said while showing off.

The group stood there and stared at Aang as they just heard his idea. Sokka was the first to react to Aang's response. "Go to your room!" he said in his fake parent voice.

* * *

Later that day, Toph had earthbended setting up stands, while Katara had bended water to create an ice sculpture, Sokka, and Zuko had set up and lit candles. "I can't believe we're having a dance party. It seems so... silly." Sokka shrugged.

"Don't think of it as a dance party, think of it as a celebrated art of footwork." Aang danced a little.

As the crowd of kids had gotten closer to the cave, Toph could feel dozens of footsteps getting closer and closer. "Everyone stop bending! People are coming!"

Sorry buddy. You should probably wait out back." Appa moaned as Aang ushered him to the other end of the cave. "I know. You have fancier feet than anybody. And six of them!"

"See you on the other side, my friend." Sokka said as he, Toph and Zuko went right after Appa in the darkness.

* * *

Fifteen minutes of dancing, Aang had finally caught up after escaping the principal and the guards. He earthbended sealing one part of the cave. Aang had ran towards his friends, whom were already on Appa's saddle.

"Guys, I'm here." Aang whispered.

"You're early. Did something happen?" Zuko asked.

"Yeah. The principle came. We have to go right now." Aang jumped on top of Appa's head and gripped the reins. "Appa! Yip yip!" Aang silently moaned and flew out the tunnel and into the sky, leaving the cave for good.

"We'r safe, Sokka. You can take off the fake beard." Katara looked at Sokka.

"Oh no I can't," Sokka stroked his beard. "It's permanently glued to my skin."

"Way to go, dancypants," Toph turned to Aang. "I think you did help those kids. You taught them to be free."

Aang scratched the back of his head. "Oh, I don't know. It was just a dance party, that's all."

"Well, that was some dance party Aang." Katara said, then looked at Zuko. "What do you think, Zuko?"

Zuko had spaced out until Katara called his name. "Huh? Oh It was okay."

"Well next time, we'll have to invite you to another one of our traditional dance parties. Right Aang?"

"Yeah." Aang grinned happily. Zuko couldn't help but smile.

"Flameo, Aang. Flameo." Sokka applauded.

* * *

Meanwhile in the underworld, the slums of the Fire Nation was a large muscular man with a metal arm and leg. He had a third eye on his forehead, a shaved head, dark eyes and a dark beard. He was the Combustion Man. He found a poster of Zuko nailed to the wall and removed it from the wall. It said wanted "Dead or Alive" in kanji. The Combustion Man put a smile on his face and walked into the shadows.


	4. The Painted Lady pt 1

Appa swam through the dirty, polluted river of Jang Hui. Zuko, Toph and Katara were bored out of their minds, while Sokka sat on the edge of Appa's saddle with a fishing rod in his hands, waiting for a fish to take his hook, sooner or later.

"Momo!" Aang popped his head out of the polluted river, playing hide and seek, while Momo is gliding, trying to catch his owner. "Momo!" It took a few tries for Momo to actually catch Aang. "Heh, you found me." Aang chuckled, as he rubbed Momo's head.

"What are you doing, Aang?" Zuko asked.

"I'm just playing hide and go seek with Momo." Aang replied.

"You need to get out of that water, it's dirty." Zuko informed.

Aang sighed, as he noticed the polluted water. "Alright, I'm coming…" he jumped onto the top of Appa's saddle, where his friends sat at. He looked at his body and found some mud on some places, then airbended the mud off, causing it to fly onto his friends.

"Hey, hey!" Zuko responded, as he got hit with some mud.

"Plah!" Toph spat some mud out, after tasting it.

"Sorry, you guys." Aang apologized, as he blew wind in their faces to get the mud off, leaving Toph and Katara's hair shaggy.

"Well, that explains why I can't catch a fish around here. Because usually, my fishing skills are OFF the hook!" Sokka made a pun, as he held the hook close to his face. "Get it? Like a fishing hook?" Sokka had zero reactions from the group.

"Too bad your fishing skills aren't ON the hook." The group laughs at Toph's pun, which annoyed Sokka.

Katara looked at the polluted water. "It looks like we need to go somewhere else to get food." Katara suggested. "Assuming that it would fit into Sokka's master schedule.

"Hm," Sokka read his schedule. "It's doable, but only two poddy breaks today." Sokka said.

Aang stood up and pointed by a nearby village. "Maybe, we can get food there?"

"That's Jang Hui." Zuko recognized that village.

"You know that place, Zuko?" Katara asked.

"I came here at least twice with my uncle."

"Is that when you were hunting down Aang, when he was in a ball of ice?" Toph asked.

"The first time was when I was a kid, so no. The second time, yes." Zuko answered irritated.

The group had found land near Jang Hui and hid Appa in some large green moss.

"Now you look like a small green hill, with horns." Aang chuckled, as he left Appa with Momo. The group walked closer to a cliff, where they discovered Jang Hui.

Toph tried to use her seismic sense to search for the people of Jang Hui, but couldn't. "I don't see anything. Where's the village?"

"In the middle of the river." Sokka pointed. _'Oh yeah, Toph's blind.' _He lowered his hand.

"It sure is!" said an unfamiliar voice. The group looked below the cliff and found an older man with a thin fishing boat. "My name's Dock." He introduced himself. "Where are you all from?"

Katara tried to make up an excuse, as she looked at her friends. "We're… we're from the-"

"We're just Fire Nation citizens who are just traveling the land." Zuko said.

"Nice one." Toph muttered sarcastically.

"Oh, you're citizens, then? Hop on. I'll give you a ride into town." Dock insisted.

The group sat on the bat in front of Dock, while he rows them to town. Zuko sat in the back, Katara sat next to Aang, and Toph held onto Sokka's forearm.

"Why do you guys live on the river?" Katara asked.

"Because…" Everyone ducked their heads, as Dock swung his stick to the other side of the boat. "We're a fishing town. The group then looked and saw a factory at the end of the cliff. "At least we were, before the factory moved in."

"Factory?" Zuko asked.

"Yes. That's where the Army makes their metal there. They moved in a few years ago and started gunking up our river." Dock explained. Zuko placed a hand over his eyepatch, thinking about what the Fire Nation has done to so many people. "And now our little village is struggling to survive."

"Thanks for the ride." Aang told Dock.

As they had arrived onto the docks of Jang Hui, they saw plenty of sick people. Women, children and the men were busy working.

"Look at this place. It's so sad." Katara started to feel a little depression.

"I know," Zuko looked around. "It was never like this when I first came here. The people were happy, and the river was… non-polluted."

"We have to help these people." Katara insisted, only to be met by Sokka. "No, we don't have time for that. We have a bigger mission to focus on. These people are on their own." Sokka said harshly.

"How could you say that? These people are starving… and you would turn your back on them?" Katara glared at her older brother.

"I'm not turning my back, I'm being a realist. We can't just go out and help every stinky polluted river we find on the way. We'll be helping them all out by taking out the Fire Lo-" Before Sokka could say another word, Zuko quickly covered his mouth, leaving him muffling.

"You can't say that out loud! You don't know who's listening!" Zuko yelled quietly, before releasing him.

Sokka inhaled a bit, then turned to Katara. "Come on, Katara, be reasonable. You know that our mission comes first."

Katara looked down and knew that Sokka was right. "I guess so…"

"Let's just get what we need and go." Aang said, before leading the way to the fish market.

Sokka rang a bell and Dock turned to face the group. "Hey, Dock. You work here too?" he asked.

"I'm not Dock. I'm Xu. Dock's my brother." Xu explained.

"But, we just saw you. You're wearing the same clothes," Aang looked at Xu's hat. "The only difference that you're wearing a different hat."

"Dock works on the docks. That's why they call him, Dock. And I work in the shop. That's why they call me, Xu." Xu said.

Aang twitched a bit. "I don't get it."

"Me neither," Xu slid down behind the counters. Xu jumped back up with a box. "Now, what can get you?" The group looked at the nasty, dead, polluted fish that was in the box and suddenly lost their appetites. "Hey, I'll make you a deal. If you buy three fish, I'll throw you a clam for free!" Sokka poked one of the clams and saw nothing but gunk from its mouth.

"Ugh!" Aang and Katara was grossed out.

"I lost my appetite…" Zuko said, as he walked away, grossed out.

"We'll just take the fish…" Sokka grabbed the fish. "You mind telling Dock that he can take us back to shore?"

Xu slid behind the counters and jumped back up with his first hat, taking the identity of Dock. "Hey, citizens. Xu says you need a lift." Dock walked to the raft.

"He's crazy." Zuko whispered to the gang.

"You said it, not me." Toph replied.

"Let's just follow him." Sokka said.

As Katara was about to leave, a little boy with a scar on his shoulder had approached her. "Can you spare some food?" he asked.

Katara gave him one fish. "I wish I could help more…" she watched as the boy gave a fish to his sick mother, before moving on.

* * *

Later that night, the group was at there camp sight, yards away from the fishing town, Jang Hui. Toph and Aang were separating the water from the gunk by bending. Katara bended the water that Aang separated the sludge from and put it in the boiling pot.

"Our detour into town today has completely thrown us off of schedule," Sokka filled his bowl with water. "It's going to take us some serious Finagling to get back on track." he said, as he read his schedule.

"Finagle AWAY, O' schedule master." Toph said sarcastically, as she walked closer.

"Well, for starters, it looks like we need to wake up forty-three minutes earlier everyday." Sokka suggested.

"Why forty-three minutes?" Katara asked.

"Look, we only have a few weeks to get to the Fire Lord in time for the eclipse," Sokka pointed at one end of the schedule. "Which, by the way, only last for eight minutes." Sokka pointed at the other end of the schedule. "So if we want to wake up on time and on schedule, we have to wake up pretty early!"

"But how early? We don't even know what time it is." Zuko asked.

"Simple. Early is early." Sokka replied.

"Well, I'm not getting up early, if it's gonna cost me my beauty sleep." Toph lied down.

"Or, we can just cut out all of our eating breaks..." Sokka stomach grumbled, as he turned to the side.

"What?" Aang reacted.

"No way!" Katara reacted.

"Forget it!" Toph sat up.

"Not happening." Zuko said.

"I got it!" Sokka came up with an idea. "How about we come up with food breaks and poddy breaks and food breaks at the same TIME?" he grinned.

"That's so gross." Zuko said. Aang spat out water from his bowl in disgust.

Sokka smirked. "Hey, it might be gross, but it's official." he picked up his map. "Either way, we have to leave first thing tomorrow morning." Sokka walked to his area of sleep. Katara frowned, as she just heard Sokka's schedule. She wanted to help those people badly. Zuko could tell the look of sadness on her face, as he glanced at her.

* * *

The next morning, Katara was checking out Appa's diagnosis, whom was groaning from sickness, as he lied on his right side. Aang woke up and saw Appa's current condition.

"What's wrong, Katara?"

"I think Appa's sick, you guys." Katara said.

"WHAT! Appa's sick!? That's awful!" Sokka panicked, as he got up.

"Wow, I didn't think you cared..." Toph said sarcastically, as she rubbed her eyes.

"Of course I care! I may as well throw our schedule away now!" Sokka checked through his schedule out of frustration. As he turned back to the gang, they all glared at him, telling Sokka that he's being selfish. "And, I'm concerned that my big fury friend doesn't feel well." he said, as he rubbed his big cheek.

"He must've gotten sick from being in the polluted water." Toph assumed.

"I don't think so. Aang would've been sick as well. It must've probably been something else." Zuko said. While everyone had their back turned, Katara had silently smiled for buying time for her to help the Jang Hui town more.

"He doesn't look sick." Aang opened Appa's mouth and discovered that his tongue was purple. "His tongue is purple, that can't be good!" Aang looked to Katara. "Katara, can you heal him?"

"It looks like he needs some medicine. Maybe we can find the right herbs in town." Katara suggested that they go back to Jang Hui. Zuko watched Katara, as he knows that something was up with her lately.

* * *

"Is it just me, or does this place seem different?" Toph asked.

The people in Jang Hui were more active and lively than before.

"Yeah, the people seems... happier." Aang noted, as Katara watched a girl play with a ball. The group made their way towards Xu's shop.

"Hey, Xu, what's going on with everyone today?" Sokka asked.

Xu had just drunk soup out of a ladle. "Ah, something just happened last night. Food was delivered last night, by a mysterious and wonderful person... the Painted Lady." Xu smiled.

"The Painted... Lady?" Zuko asked.

"The Painted WHO now?" Katara asked.

"Yes, the Painted Lady... she's part of our town's lord." Xu brought out a small sculpture of the Painted Lady. "They say that she's a river spirit, whom watches over our times of need. I always thought she was just a legend, until now." Xu pointed at the towns people and the gang discovered that plenty of people had sculptures in their hands.

"See? We don't need to help these people, they already have someone to help them." Sokka crossed his arms. "All we need is medicine for our sick friend." he told Xu.

"Sorry. All the medicine we have goes to the factory. That's why we have so many sick people in our village." Xu explained, as he wiped the counter.

"Looks like we need to stay another night so Appa can rest..." Katara said with ease.

Sokka sighed. "I guess you're right." he looked at Xu. "You got any food to sell?"

Xu slid under the counters and quickly popped back up with two fish. "Would you lie the one-head or two-head fish?"

"Two-headed!" Sokka took the fish and turned to the gang, whom had nasty looks. "What? You get more money that way."

"Get that away from me." Zuko said, as he took a step back.

"Ugh!" The group ran off with Sokka chasing them.

* * *

The next day, Team Avatar had approached the docks once more. Sokka leaned against the counter. "Hey, Dock. Is Xu around?"

"Hm. Let me check." Xu ran to the back of the shop and switched hat, then ran back to the front counter. "I'm here!"

Toph forcefully shoved Sokka out the way. "We need more food. Our friend is getting sicker by the minute, and we can't leave until he's better." she gave him some money and in return, got a plate with clams that had gunk in their mouth.

"That's too bad. If you're lucky, the Painted Lady might visit you in the night and heal your friend." Xu said with little remorse. Zuko once more stared at Katara from behind, as Xu mentioned the words "Night" and "Heal".

Sokka had started to get irritated by clams with gunk. "And maybe she'll cook us a good night snack and we'll all have a sing along." he said sarcastically.

"Yeah, that'll be great!" Xu replied, not knowing that Sokka was being sarcastic.

Zuko facepalmed himself, as he knew that Xu didn't understand sarcasm. _'I hope the rest of the towns people aren't like him.' _

"You know, she visited us again and healed most of our sick folks."

Aang looked around. "Is that why this town is so festive right now?" he asked. The group sees its town people setting up statue of the Painted Lady and cheering it on.

"Yep, it's all because of the Painted Lady."

Katara was amazed. "Can you imagine how an entire village can be affected by one lady-I mean, spirit? It's so amazing!"

"Well, I hope she returns every night, otherwise, this place would go back to the way it was." Sokka said bluntly.

Katara twitching out of annoyance and turned to her brother. "How could you say that? Look how happy these people are."

"Yeah, now. Without them, they wouldn't be able to fend for themselves. If she wanted to help, she would blow up that spirit factory." he said. "Wooooh!" Sokka mocked the Painted Lady by making ghost sounds. "Ploom!"

"Spirit magic doesn't work that way, Sokka. It's more like..." Aang squiggled his body. "Wooooooooh, psssh!"

Aang and Sokka got together and started wooing along. "Woooooooh!"

Katara stormed to the edge of the docks and stared at the factory, that is polluting the entire river town.

* * *

Later that night, everyone were sleeping in their bags. Appa was sleeping on his legs, Momo was sleeping on Appa's head. Katara pretended to sleep, just to make sure that everyone was asleep. Katara wore some long dark cloth to disguise herself. She used waterbending to make an ice mirror out of a small whole filled with water. She used some red clay as makeup and placed markings on her face, her chin and her arms. She wore a hat so that no one could see her face. As she thought the close was clear, she ran off in silence. One of the steps had awakened Momo from his slumber. Momo saw her and alerted Aang.

"What's the matter, buddy?" Aang woke up and saw Katara in disguise and gasped. "Hello, Painted Lady spirit!" Aang waved. Katara gasped realizing that Aang was awake then ran off. Aang quickly followed Katara all the way to the docks. Aang chased after her on the rooftops. "Hey!" he yelled, until he ran into some sticks. Katara ran pass the town to the other side of the shore and hid behind a rock. She panted, as she went to check, and sighed, assuming that the coast is clear.

"Hello!" Aang suddenly appeared before her upside down, like a mole. "My name is Aang. I'm the Avatar." he lifted his headband to show her his arrow.

Katara tried to hid her face. "Well, hello, avatar. I wish I could talk, but I am very busy." she said in a fake voice.

Aang turned his head away. "Yeah, me too. I hate that." For a split second, he tried to look under her hat. "You're very pretty for a spirit." Aang complimented. "Most spirits that I meet are not very attractive.

"Thank you, but-"

"You seem familiar, too. Have we met before?" Aang asked, as he tried to peek.

"A lot of people say that." she said.

"No, you REALLY seem familiar." Aang noted.

"Look, I really should get going, bye." Katara in disguise walked away.

"See you later," Aang knew something was fishy, so he airbended to remove Katara's hit. At that instant, Katara turned, jumped and grabbed her hat before it could fly away. "Katara?"

"Hi, Aang." Katara responded in her normal voice.

"YOU'RE the Paunted Lady!?" Aang pointed in shock. "But how?"

"I wasn't at first, I was only trying to help the village. And since everyone seemed to look up to her, I sort of became her." Katara explained, as she dropped her hat.

"Wait, so you've been sneaking out at night? Is Appa even sick?" Aang asked.

"Well, he might have been sick of the purple berries I've been feeding him. Other than that, he's fine."

"I can't believe you've been lying so that you could help these people." Aang said with little disappointment in his voice.

"I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have..."

"No, I think it's great! You're like a secret hero!" Aang smiled. "But wait, does anyone else know about this?"

"Well..."

All of a sudden, Zuko walked out of the shadows. "Hi, Aang."

"Zuko? You're in this too!?"

"Yeah. I caught her sneaking into the village last night. I knew how much she cared for those people, so I agreed to help her in anyway I can. So far, I've been stealing medicine from that factory up there." Zuko explained.

"Thank you, Zuko." Katara said.

Aang rubbed his head. "You know, all this takes me back."

"Back? Back where?" Katara asked.

"Oh, you and Sokka were sick at the time. I went to catch some frozen frogs in the swamp that one time, and then I got caught by Zhao in the Fire Nation. And then out of nowhere, Zuko came and rescued me. He wore a spooky blue mask and helped me escaped from Zhao." Aang explained.

Katara turned to Zuko. "Wow, Zuko. You never told me that you helped Aang."

Zuko rubbed his back. "Well, I couldn't let anyone have the Avatar back then..." he turned tried to hide his blush.

"Speaking of Zhao, where is he?" Katara asked.

"Yeah, I haven't seen Zhao, since he killed the moon spirit at the North Pole." Aang reminisced the time Zhao killed the white koi fish, then everything went gray.

Zuko remembered fighting Zhao, whom was escaping the North Pole. And then, a large hand of water grabbed Zhao's body. _'Take my hand!' _Zuko tried to help, but Zhao refused to get help from a traitor and drowned. "He... drowned." Zuko hesitated.

"Oh, that's sad." Katara said.


	5. The Painted Lady pt 2

In the night, the three benders, Zuko, Katara and Avatar Aang had approached the Fire Nation factory from below, by the pipes that release the dirty water.

'_This is absolutely disgusting, when you look up close at it.' _Zuko thought, as looked at the dirty water.

"So, you want to take out this factory?" Aang asked Katara.

"Yes. Sokka was kidding, but he was right. Getting rid of the factory is the only way to help these people., permanently." Katara said.

Aang collided his fist into his palm. "Let's do it. We have three benders that can take down a factory like this easily." A second later, Aang and Katara had forgotten about Zuko can't currently firebend. "Oh… Zuko. I-"

"None taken." Zuko swiftly replied. "Let's just take this factory down." He said quietly.

Aang and Katara nodded at each other, as the three of them then rushed into the factory through the front door. The place was active, there were no guards on sight. They split up as they looked around and started fiddling with things. Katara had saw some pots of lava hanging from the ceiling and used her water sash to cut the chains, making the pots fall. Zuko and Aang tipped some pots over, letting the lava fall to the floor.

Aang ran to one spot of the factory where there were pipes and controls and earthbended, causing a small quake in the area. Katara waved her hands in motion, causing a large body of water to break the windows behind her and have the water fall on top of the flooding lava. Within minutes, the factory had started exploding from certain areas, until the entire structure had collapsed.

The three had ran away from the crime scene with no casualties.

"We did it." Aang said with happiness.

"Now the factory won't be releasing more gunk into the river." Katara said.

* * *

The sun had risen and the three had walked to camp in stealth.

"We don't wanna wake Sokka and Toph, you guys." Katara said, as they made it to the camp, Sokka and Toph had waited for them to return and they both had looks of disappointment on their faces.

"Too late." Zuko said.

"Hi, Sokka. We were just… going on a morning walk." Katara lied.

"Oh really? A MORNING WALK?" Sokka said sarcastically, and grabbed one of the sleeping bags and dumped the moss out. "I know you're the Painted Lady. I know you've been lying to everyone and sneaking night after night, and I know you've sabotaged Appa, by feeding him purple berries!"

"Ah…" Toph held a bag of purple berries and showed them that her tongue was purple. Momo took a few berries and put them into his mouth.

"Katara, what you did put our whole mission in jeopardy!" Sokka crossed his arms. "We're leaving right now!" Katara walked in shame, both Aang and Zuko started to follow her. "And how long did you two know about this?" Sokka looked at Zuko first.

"The night before." Zuko shrugged and walked off.

Sokka turned to Aang. "And you?"

"Hey, I just found out this morning." Aang said, then ran.

Five minutes of packing, the entire group heard the sound of Fire Nation motorboats. Then they ran to the cliff where they see more than a dozen soldiers and less then a dozen motorboats head towards Jang Hui, furiously.

"What's going on?" Toph asked, as she crouched down.

"Fire Nation soldiers are heading to the village." Aang informed Toph.

Sokka turned to Katara. "What did you do?"

"I kind of… destroyed their factory." Katara answered.

"You what!?" Sokka reacted.

"It was your idea!" Katara shouted back.

"I was only kidding! I also said to use spirit magic and make funny noises" Sokka added, then facepalmed himself. "Did you even think this through? The army is going to blame the villagers and get their revenge!"

"Well, what was I supposed to do?" Katara asked in frustration.

"Leave! Do nothing!" Sokka answered.

"That's enough arguing, you guys." Zuko said.

"You stay out of this, Zuko! I'm talking to my sister, here." Sokka barked at Zuko.

"Don't talk to Zuko that way!" Katara defended Zuko. "He was only trying to help!"

"So what? You convinced Zuko to come and help you anger the army?"

Katara stood up. "Yes! I needed him, and I will never EVER turn my back on him, nor those people who need me!" That last part made Sokka flinch, Zuko blush a little, Aang with no reaction and Toph surprised.

"Wow." Toph said, being amazed and left out of the conversation.

"I'm going down to the village. And I'm going to do whatever I can to help them…" Katara began to storm off.

Sokka took a deep breathe and went after Katara. "Wait," he said, as he placed a hand on Katara's left shoulder. "I'm coming too."

Katara turned to face her brother. "I thought you didn't want to help."

"You need me. And I will never turn my back on you." Sokka said, with a calm demeanor.

"Sokka, you really do have a heart." Katara said, as they hugged it out. The rest walked over and saw them hugging. Aang teared up, a bit.

"He really does have a heart…" Aang glanced at Toph with zero expression, then she nudged Aang to the ground. "Ugh!" Aang groaned.

"He really does have a heart." Toph smiled, as she hugged Zuko.

"Um… right…" Zuko slowly replied.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Fire Nation soldiers traveled to the village by motorboats and particularly terrorized the village by setting houses on fire and destroying pillars underneath houses, causing them to fall into the gunky river.

Suddenly, the mist had randomly appeared from where the soldiers had came from. The Painted Lady had floated across the water, towards Jang Hui. Aang had created a fog from combining his waterbending and airbending skills. In the distance, Toph used a boulder and to repeatedly hit part of the earth to make rupture sounds, and Appa lightly roared behind her. Sokka used a flute to make noises. Zuko was hiding behind a number of people, counting how many soldiers there were. The Painted Lady had set foot on the raft, facing the Fire Nation soldiers.

"It's her!" a kid yelled.

"Do something!" the General shoved two of his soldiers forward to face the Painted Lady. The drew their swords from their sheathes and slowly approached her. As the Painted Lady glanced at them, Aang blew Air at them from below the raft, knocking their headbands off. They both got scared and ran off, passed the General. "Stand your ground!"

The Painted Lady glanced at the General, then took out two of his motorboats by waterbending and launching them to a cliff, where they exploded right in front of everyone. As the soldiers turned to her, the Painted Lady slowly raised her hand forward and the rest of the Fire Nation soldiers had ran and fled on motorboats, leaving the General all alone.

"I'll take care of you, myself!" The General growled, then launched a wave of fire at her. Aang saw it coming, so he used his airbending to shoot the Painted Lady up in midair. Aang then thrusted his fist at the General from below the raft, causing him to fly and fall into the gunky river. The General exhaled, as he reached the surface. The Painted Lady had approached him, standing on water.

"Leave this place… and never return." The Painted Lady instructed. This struck fear into the General's heart and swam away. As the Painted Lady had returned to the docks, the village had applause her for her deeds.

"Thank you, Painted Lady!" One person said.

"I knew you'd come!" Another person said.

Dock had approached her. "Thank you! My village, my brothers and I owe you a lot." As Dock got closer, they were inches apart. Dock got a closer look and noticed something was wrong. "Hey, wait a minute…" Some of Katara's painting came off. "You're not the Painted Lady. You're that traveling Fire Nation girl!" he yelled out loud. Katara gasped, as she noticed some of the painting came off.

"Yeah. You're the lady that gave me a fish that other day!" A kid yelled.

"You tricked us! You're a waterbender!" Dock crossed his arms in disgust.

"She's a waterbender! How dare you pretend to be our Painted Lady!?" A guy yelled, then the villagers detesting and booing her.

Zuko saw that the plan had failed and rushed through the crowd to Katara's aid, defending her. "So what if she isn't the Painted Lady she saved all of your lives! If it wasn't for her, some of you wouldn't even be here today."

The rest of Team Avatar arrive at the raft, except Toph, whom decided to stay behind a crowd. "Yeah, and who cares if she's a waterbender? She was only trying to help you people!" Sokka raised his hands. "The factory is destroyed, and the army is gone! You should be down on your knees, thanking her!"

"Whoa, Sokka. A bit too far." Zuko added, as he glanced at him. Some of the people started to realize that Katara was trying to help and give them hope and started to feel guilt.

"It's okay, Sokka." Katara said, as she stepped forward and removed her hat. "I'm sorry that I lied to you all. And I'm sorry that I pretended to be someone I'm not, but someone had to do something. It doesn't matter if the Painted Lady was real. What's real is all of your problems… the river… they're all real. You can't just wait for someone to tell you, or for someone to do it for you. You need to do it, yourself." Katara protested.

"She's right. But, what should we do?" Dock asked.

Toph stuck her head out. "Maybe you should clean up the river!" she yelled, before poking her head back in the crowd.

"Yes, we'll clean up the river!" Dock turned to the crowd, who cheered on that idea, then turned back to Katara. "You know, you're not so bad, for a waterbender." Dock complimented.

"You wouldn't mind keeping it a secret, would you?" Sokka asked, assuming that if someone finds out, they're going to alert the Fire Nation. Toph had just arrived at the docks.

Dock laughed. "Sure, no problem!" Keeping my mouth shut is my personal specialty! My brother, Xu on the other hand is a blabbermouth." He whispered.

"Ugh." Sokka groaned, as he facepalmed his forehead.

"So, Dock, are you gonna help us clean?" Katara asked.

"No ma'am. I'm going to get my other brother, Bushi. He'd loves cleaning rivers." Dock said.

Zuko facepalmed himself, knowing what's coming next. "Oh no…"

Dock removed his Dock hat, revealing his Bushi hat. "Alright! Let's get some river cleaning done!" he said, proudly.

Aang walked forward. "Aha! I knew it! I knew you were the same guy. You're the shop owner, and the boat guy." Aang confidently smiled.

"Oh, you must be talking about my brothers, Dock and Xu." Bushi lowered his hat.

"No, I just saw you! You switched hats and called yourself a different name!" Aang complained.

"Oh… you know who does that? My brother, Dock." Bushi looked around before whispering to Aang. "He's crazy." He laughed, before walking off.

Zuko and Sokka had annoyed looks on their faces, Katara was confused and Aang was left furious.

Ten minutes later, the village grabbed plenty boats and started the cleaning process. Aang and Toph stood on a small boat, there was a bigger boat behind them, where they place the gunk. Next to Katara was a large barrel where she place the clean water. Aang and Toph earthbended, and Katara waterbended to separate the sludge from the water and placed both of them in separate boat and container. It took a full day's work of cleaning. Boats had rowed across the river removing the sludge, until the river was reflecting the color of the sky once again. The people were now happy that they could roam and row freely.

Team Avatar stood over a cliff, as they glanced down at the village, Jang Hui.

"This is exactly how I remembered it as a kid." Zuko said.

"Oh yeah, you did say that, Zuko." Katara said.

Sokka yawned. "Well, all we have to do now is get going on our quest!" Sokka said, as he held out his schedule, annoying Katara.

* * *

**Author's Note: I made this a two-part, because I felt like that I couldn't cram it all at once. Enjoy.**


	6. Sokka's Master

**Summary: Last time, Team Avatar had reached a polluted river town called Jan Hui. Katara felt bad for the village, so she decided to help them in secret by disguising herself as the mythical Painted Lady. She alongside Aang and Zuko had destroyed the factory. The Fire Navy soldiers had tormented the town, until Katara, whom had disguised herself as the Painted Lady and chased them away. Her cover was quickly blown afterwards and she taught the village to stand up for themselves. In no time, the entire river was cleaned. **

**Author's Note: I understand that the title is called "Sokka's Master", but we're going to be focusing on Zuko in this chapter.**

* * *

The group made it close by a Fire Nation town. They made sure to stay out of site out sight and move to rocky canyon. The five teenagers lied under the night sky, watching a bunch of lights fall from the sky. Zuko lied on the far left, Toph lied next to Zuko, Aang lied to Toph, Katara lied next to Aang, whom had used Momo as a pillow behind his head. And Sokka lied next to Katara.

"Wow. This is amazing to watch." Katara said as she enjoyed the view.

"Kind of makes you think how insignificant we are." Sokka thought out loud.

"Eh," Toph yawned. "You've seen nothing once, you've seen it a thousand times."

"Oh yeah, you're blind. I almost forgot." Zuko mentioned, as he looked at Toph.

The group suddenly saw a blue light coming a little closer towards their direction. "Whoa…"

"You've never NOT seen anything like this." Sokka's eyes widen as he sat up.

The group sat up and noticed how close it was, but was still dozens of feet above them. The group ducked and took cover. Zuko grabbed Toph to make sure she wasn't hit, which made Toph blush a little. The blue ball of light was shot over their heads and landed onto a nearby open grass field. The heard the impact, as Toph could feel the rumble through her feet.

"That's not good." Zuko noted as he saw smoke coming from the south. That's where the meteor had landed.

The group quickly made their way and flew on top of Appa's back, hovering above the meteor crash.

"That fire is gonna head into town!" Katara noted.

"Not if we can stop it!" Aang confidently spoke. Appa flew down closer to the crash but not close enough to the fire. The group jumped off of Appa's back, except Katara, whom jumped on top of Appa's head. She grabbed Appa's rein and looked to her friends.

"There's a creek over here. I'll bend the water onto the fire. Yip yip!" Katara whipped the reins, telling Appa to fly.

"Toph. Let's make a trench to keep the fire from coming any closer!" Aang said.

Sokka grabbed his jawbone blade and looked at Aang and Toph, as they moved. "Wait, what should I do?" he asked, feeling left out.

Aang and Toph paused, briefly as they looked at Sokka and saw Momo fly pass by. "Keep an eye on Momo." He replied.

"So what, I'm just a lemur sitter?" Sokka asked himself as Momo flew on top of his head. "There, there." He patted Momo's head, which is on top of Sokka's head.

"You're not the only one feeling left out." Zuko said as he stood right next to Sokka.

"Thanks, Zuko. I'm feeling better already." Sokka said, sarcastically.

Zuko and Sokka watched Aang and Toph bend earth to make a line within the ground so the fire wouldn't spread. A few sparks of fire burst out and a few spots of had hit the ground. The Zuko stomped on the sparks, Sokka hit the sparks and Momo just jumped over and threw dirt over it.

"Sokka, we gotta stand clear. It's not safe here." Zuko told Sokka.

"Right. Stand clear." Sokka responded, taking cover with his head hung down.

Meanwhile, Katara whom was riding on Appa's back had bended a large body of water from a nearby creek and brought it with her. The body had almost resembled a large bubble behind her. As she had arrived at the scene once again, she bended the body of water and some of the water caused it to rain down on the fire, as she rode on Appa.

Toph used her earth bending skills to create earth tiles to flatten over and put out the fire.

Katara passed the body of water to Aang, which had hovered over his head. "Alright, here we go!" Aang decided to combine the body of water hovering over his head and use the air in his lunges to blow and splash the burning meteor. Now that was nothing but falling snowflakes and snow on the ground. Aang had just invented snowbending.

"Wow. Look at that. Snow." Zuko said as he saw the snow.

"Yeah." Sokka sighed. "I wish I could do that, too."

* * *

The next day, the group of teenagers dined at an outside restaurant. The group sat at a long table where they could sit together and talk. They all had their treys of food in front of them.

"These people have no idea how close they were from being toasted, last night." Aang said before he took a bite out of a bun.

"Yeah. The worst part of being in disguise… is that we don't get any rewards or hero worshipping." Toph said.

"I personally think we shouldn't talk about this in public." Zuko insisted that they be a little quiet.

Toph ignored Zuko. "Man, I miss the love" she pouted.

"Boohoo. Poor heroes." Sokka mocked. He sat on a wall, staring at an area of town. The group stared at Sokka's backside in worry.

"What's your problem? You haven't even touched your smoked seaslug." Katara pointed at his meal.

"It's probably because of what happened last night." Zuko said.

"About the meteor?" Aang asked.

"Yeah. You see, Sokka felt left out an—"

"Let me tell the story!" Sokka yelled at Zuko. He took a quick breather and apologized. "I'm sorry. It's just… all you guys can do this awesome bending stuff, like putting out forest fires and flying around and making other stuff fly around." Katara, Aang and Zuko glanced at each other for a moment and looked back at Sokka. "I can't do… anything." He moaped.

"That's not true. I can't read a map like you." Katara tried to relate to Sokka's pain.

"I can't read at all." Toph said.

"And no one can physically fly around like a bird." Zuko said.

"Yet." Toph added.

"Also, who keeps us laughing with your sarcastic puns?" Aang asked, trying to cheer him up. "I mean," Aang grabbed a bang of Katara's hair. "What's up with Katara's hair? What's the deal? Am I right?" he failed to add humor.

"W-what? What's wrong with my hair?" Katara pulled her bang back and blushed, feeling embarrassed.

Aang tried to reason with Katara now. "Nothing. I was just trying to—"

Sokka cut Aang off. "It's alright. I appreciate the effort. But the fact is… each of you is so amazing and so special, and I'm… not. I'm just the guy in the group who's… regular." He continued to stare at the houses, moping in depression.

"Don't feel bad, buddy. You're not alone. Zuko can't firebend anymore." Aang joked.

"Yeah, I—" Zuko paused as he heard what Aang had just said and stared at him. "Hey!" He then shot daggers at him, metaphorically. Aang grinned in an embarrassed way.

Katara got up from her seat and walked over next to her brother, sitting on an edge of a wall. "I'm sorry you're feeling so down, but I hope none of us see you that way." Katara then thought of an idea and turned to Sokka. "I know something that's gonna make you feel better!"

Sokka turned his head and glanced at his sister. "You do?" he asked.

About ten minutes after eating at an outside restaurant, the group of teenagers traveled to a famous weapon store. Katara knew that Sokka liked weapons.

"Shopping!" Sokka said cheerfully, as he ventured into the store of weaponry. He looked through each isle trying to find out which weapon to get. "Maybe a little something to reinvigorate my battling." He thought out loud, as he picked up a pair of Nun chucks. "Hey, how about these?" he asked Toph, who watched as he tested them out to see if the Nun-chucks were fight for him. He made swooshing sounds as he swung, until he hit his head by accident. "Oof!"

"Heh," Toph chucked, as he fell on the floor and a few sticks landed on top of himself. "I think they fit you quite well."

Zuko looked around the shop, searching for a sword that would fit him.

Sokka had tried out many weapons, but none of them happened to be his soulmate. He grabbed a single sai and used it's tip to get some food out his teeth. He glanced to the right and saw a set of swords in a corner. But what caught Sokka's interest was sword at the very top. The sword had a wooden hilt, as its sheath had a Chinese dragon crest on it.

"Wooh…" Sokka moaned, as he walked over and slid his hand on its sheath. "That's what Sokka's talking about."

"You have a good eye. That's an original from Piandao, the greatest sword master and sword maker in Fire Nation history." The shop owner said with a broom in his hand. "He lives in a big castle, up the road from here." He said, before sweeping off somewhere.

The rest of the group walked over to Sokka and the shop owner. As Zuko looked at the sword, then at the shop owner whom was sweeping elsewhere, he lightly gasped as he saw a close resemblance to his uncle Iroh.

Katara looked and caught Zuko staring at the shop owner. "Something wrong?" she whispered.

Zuko suddenly woke up and turned his face to Katara. "Oh, it's nothing." He murmured.

"That's it! That's what you needed all along, Sokka." Aang just got an idea.

"A sword?" Sokka asked.

"Not the sword, but a master." Aang said, as Sokka picked the prop from the wall. "We've all had masters to help us get better. You should see that you could study under Piandao."

"That's a great idea. I would've never gotten anywhere, if I never met Master Pakku. Everyone needs a teacher." Katara mentioned her grandfather.

"I learned from Badger Moles. They don't talk, but they're great teachers." Toph mentioned.

"And I learned from…" Zuko paused, as he didn't want to ruin the surprise. He then changed his mind and thought about Iroh. "My uncle…"

"Hm. Maybe becoming a master sword fighter wouldn't be so bad." Sokka removed its sheath, staring at Piandao's original blade. "Alright, I'll talk to him."

* * *

About a couple of hours after Sokka had visited Piandao's mansion, the group of teenagers had walked back to the campsite and lied on the grounds, bored out of their minds.

"What do you guys wanna do today?" Aang asked, as he stared at some clouds.

"I'm tapped out. I already picked my toes, twice." Toph said.

"Twice?" Aang turned his head towards Toph and Momo jumped onto the ground.

"The first time is for cleaning, the second time is for the SWEET picking sensation." Toph wiggled her toes when she said the word "SWEET".

"Sokka's been in charge of the schedule. I don't know what we'll be doing today." Katara said.

Toph picked her nose. "Plus, it's sooooo hot today."

"How hot is it?" Aang asked.

"I don't know. Real hot?" Toph guessed.

"It's so hot…" Aang turned to Katara when she spoke. "It's so hot, that…" Katara stroked Momo's fur. "Momo is shedding fur like Appa! Eh? Eh?"

Aang remained silent, at her failed pun. "I guess the jokes don't run in the family." He mentioned.

"Oh, ha-ha. Everyone's a critic." Katara mentioned, sarcastically. Appa moaned. She then looked at Zuko, whom was staring at the clouds, imagining Iroh in the sky.

'_Zuko.' _Zuko imagined Iroh calling his name.

"Uncle?" He muttered, as he stared at the Iroh-shaped cloud. He thought her was hallucinating, but then his ear suddenly worked again, as he heard Katara call his name.

"Zuko. Zuko… Zuko?" Katara called, catching his attention.

"Huh?" Zuko sat up in surprise. "What?" he turned to his friends, as they looked at him in worrisome.

"Are you alright?" Katara asked.

"Oh, sorry. I was just staring at some clouds." Zuko rubbed his head.

"You've been spacing out for a while now." Toph noted. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Look, don't worry about it. I'll be okay." Zuko lied back down staring at some more clouds. By the time he glanced back up, the clouds had already dispersed within the air.

Shortly after a while, Katara pulled out a map of the Fire Nation country. Since Sokka wasn't there to navigate, they decided that they wanted to go one step ahead of Sokka in their journeys. The four benders sat and looked at a map, discovering where they are in the Fire Nation.

Toph gasped in joy. "Sokka's coming!"

The others turned their heads and saw Sokka walking up the rocky road.

"Hey guys. What are you doing?" Sokka asked as his friends as he arrived.

"Sokka!" Aang, Katara and Toph immediately group hugged Sokka, as Zuko just walked towards him.

"We missed you, SO much!" Katara smiled.

"Say something funny!" Aang begged for one of Sokka's jokes.

Sokka looked at Aang and Katara in a weird way. "Funny how?" The two benders broke out and laughed, as Sokka remained confused. He turned to Zuko and Toph. "What's their deal?"

"I don't know." Toph replied.

"I guess they missed you a lot since you were gone for a while." Zuko assumed.

"I didn't care." Toph turned away from Sokka, hiding her blush from him and Zuko.

"Thanks. That warms my heart," Sokka said, feeling a little touched on the inside. "Anyway, I need some help."

The group of teenagers ran to the sight of the meteor crash and slowly walked closer towards it. The five glanced down big rock-sized black meteorite, closely.

"You want to make a sword out of this meteorite?" Zuko asked.

"Of course. Technically, it's not part of the earth. So, I want to be the first to ever use this kind of material." Sokka said as he moved closer to the meteorite. He grunted, trying to push and pull the meteorite, but couldn't do it alone. "Little help, you guys?" The four benders looked at each other in no rush, then looked at Sokka and jumped down to help him move.

Five minutes later, the group is pushing the black meteorite up the hill towards Master Pindao's mansion. Toph had to stay behind and earthbend, so the meteorite wouldn't fall.

After ten minutes of pushing and bending, the group successfully brought the meteor to Master Piandao's fancy double doors. Sokka rung the door handles like crazy again, until Master Piandao opened the door, which made Sokka flinch.

"Who are they?" Piandao asked Sokka, as he saw four teenager with the black meteorite.

"Oh, these are my friends. Just good Fire Nation folks." Sokka replied, as Zuko, Aang and Katara respectfully bowed.

"Likewise." Piandao responded by bowing back.

"Do you think we can make a sword out of a meteorite?" Sokka asked, as he gave Piandao space to touch the meteorite.

"You'll make a sword, unlike any other in the world." Piandao said, as he secretly glanced at Zuko.

After the meteorite was brought into his Piandao's home, Sokka begun to work on making his meteorite sword. It took hours of work for Sokka. The group watched as Sokka sweating and grinding, pumping air into the fire They watched from behind a wall.

Aang turned to Zuko, curiously. "Hey, Zuko. You're a swordsman. Are you sure you don't want to make a meteorite sword, like Sokka's doing?" Aang asked.

"Yeah. You could be missing out on a once in a lifetime opportunity, you know." Toph said.

"Look, I appreciate the offer and your concerns, but Sokka has finally come a long way. Not only as a leader, but as a man. He's earned it." Zuko said, as he continued to watch Sokka.

"Yeah, what Zuko said. Sokka's finally come a long way. He's earned it." Katara gazed at Sokka out of amazement.

"I remember the days when he had nothing but his jawbone blade and boomerang." Aang reminisced from the day they met to now.

"Yep, good times." Toph chuckled, as she slid her back downwards on the wall.

* * *

The next day, Team Avatar were invited to come to Sokka's orientation and were brought inside of Piandao's home. The group were on their knees, listening to Piandao's speech.

"Sokka," Piandao called. "When you first arrived, you were so unsure. You even seemed down on yourself. But then I saw something inside of you right away. I saw a heart as strong as a Lion-Turtle, twice as big." he noted his Sokka's sheer will. "And as we trained, it wasn't your skills that impressed me." His butler fat bowed and respectfully handed Sokka's sword to Piandao. "No, it certainly wasn't your skills..."

Sokka had a look of shame on his face and glanced to the left, while the group behind him looked at Sokka's backside.

"You showed me something beyond that." Piandao slowly drew out the meteorite blade from its sheath. "Creativity. Versatility. Intelligence. These are the traits that define a great swordsman." he stared at the blade and saw his own reflection. "And these are the traits... that define you." Piandao respectfully bowed and offered Sokka to take his sword. "You told me that you were not worthy, but I believe... that you are more worthy than any man I have ever trained."

Sokka took his bleed and silently sighed. He knew that he had to come in terms with himself and Piandao. He had to speak the truth. "I'm sorry, master. You're wrong. I am not worthy." Sokka said.

"What do you mean?" Piandao asked.

"I'm not who you think I am. I'm not from the Fire Nation. I'm from the Southern Water Tribe." Sokka said, honestly with disappointment in his voice. Leaving a shocked reaction from his friends.

Zuko face palmed himself. _'Why didn't I think that Sokka would come clean?!'_

"I lied, so I could learn swordsmanship from you. I'm sorry." Sokka apologized and offered to give his sword back to Piandao, whom was a bit angry after finding out the truth.

"I'm sorry, too." Piandao turned to his left a bit and drew out his sword, swung at Sokka.

"Guh!" Sokka grunted as he dodged and drew his blade, clashing it with Piandao's. Team Avatar stood up to assist Sokka, but was stopped. "No. This is my fight. Alone." he said, which made Piandao smile.

Five minutes later, Piandao and Sokka stood on the training grounds, prepared to duel one another, while Team Avatar stood on the balcony alongside Piandao's butler, Fat. They watched as the fight took place. Katara and Aang had worried looks, while Toph had a blank reaction and Zuko had confidents.

Master Piandao drew the first move on Sokka, playing the offensive role, placing Sokka on defense. They clash swords a few times before Piandao palm struck his chest, which made Sokka push back a few inches. Sokka jumped onto the short bridge, unintentionally using his evasive skills.

"That's it. Using your agility against an older opponent. Smart." Piandao noted, as he chased after Sokka.

"Should we follow him?" Aang asked.

"No. Remember, Sokka said that this is his fight alone." Zuko quoted. "This is also a training ground. We don't want to tarnish Sokka's pride by interfering."

"He's right." Fat said, which made Aang and Katara look over to him. "This is a fight between two swordsmen. And only two swordsmen could deal with it."

"Good use of brain. Fighting from the high ground." Piandao noted, as Sokka jumped onto a wall and caught Piandao's blade with his own by pressing down with his sword.

"Uh!" Sokka tripped and fell backwards, landing on some bamboo, which made the group except Zuko silently grunt. After running into a bamboo forest, Sokka ran like a wild man. "Aaaaah!" he screamed, as Piandao chased after him. He nearly struck Sokka, whom dodged by ducking. He tried to pull his blade out the ground. As he did, he grunted and released some dirt that got onto Piandao's face.

_'Not even I had thought of that.' _Zuko thought as he watched.

"P-tuh!" Piandao spat some dirt out and closed his eyes. "Very resourceful." he then opened his ears to catch his opponent.

Sokka tried to silently move away from his master, but accidently stepped on a twig, which caught his ears. Piandao thrust forward, which clashed against Sokka's blade. He locked onto Sokka's and twirled his blade, spiraling until he made Sokka lose his grip. Sokka is now defenseless and Piandao attempted to swing ninety degrees, which mad Sokka jump back and grunt. Piandao pointed the tip of his blade towards Sokka's face. Aang, Katara and Toph thought that they were gonna kill him, so they jumped over the balcony to try and intervene.

"Excellent work, Sokka." Piandao said, which got a confused look out of Team Avatar. He then called for Fat to throw him over his sheath, which he did and the sheath landed over and on top of the sword, perfectly. "I think I'm a little too old to be fighting the Avatar."

Katara and Aan looked at each other in confusion before staring at Piandao. "How did you know?"

"Oh, I've been around a while. Of course, I knew from the beginning that you all would be coming here sooner or later." Fat handed Piandao a handkerchief to wipe the dirt off his face.

"You knew you that we were coming here? How?" Katara asked.

"Once I saw one my recognizable students in town yesterday, I knew that you would all be coming," Piandao turned to Zuko. "Prince Zuko."

Zuko removed his eyepatch and respectfully bowed towards his master. "It's good to see you again, Master Piandao."

Sokka, Katara and Aang were shocked and stared at Zuko. "W-what?!" the three yelled.

"Zuko, YOU were trained under Master Piandao? Since when?!" Aang asked.

"It was a few years ago, before I was banished." Zuko stated s he also nodded. "I wanted Sokka to have his moment, that's why I didn't say anything."

"So you had us all fooled, thinking that you were a hot head prince. Smart." Toph smiled and roughly nudged Zuko's arm.

"Yeah," Zuko silently grunted.

"If you already knew Master Piandao, why didn't you tell us?" Aang asked Zuko.

"Because if you all had found out, then you'd probably wouldn't have came here seeking a master." Piandao answered Aang's question. "Plus, I knew that Sokka was Water Tribe from the beginning. You might wanna think of another Fire Nation cover name. Try Lee. There's a million Lee's." he took a sip of tea

"I actually used it when I was in Ba Sing Se." Zuko raised his hand.

"But why would you train Sokka, even if you knew he was from the Water Tribe?" Katara asked.

"The way of the sword doesn't belong to any ONE nation. The knowledge of art belongs to us all." Piandao answered, passing his teacup back to Fat. He then picked up Sokka's blade and handed it to him. "Sokka. Zuko. You two must continue training in the art of swordsmanship. If you stay on this path, I know that you two will be even greater swordsmen than I am."

Both Sokka and Zuko smiled and respectfully bowed towards their master.

Five minutes later, Team Avatar begun their departure from Piandao's home.

"Wait!" heard a familiar voice. The group looked back to see Fat running towards them. "Master Piandao wanted to give this to you." Fat had caught up and gave Sokka a small black pouch. "Something to remember him by." Fat respectfully bowed and left.

Sokka opened the pouch to find a Pai Sho tile. "It's a Pai Sho tile."

"Of the White Lotus." Aang said.

"Wait, I've seen this before." Zuko took the tile from Sokka.

"What does it mean?" Katara asked.

Zuko suddenly remembered back when he and Iroh were in a desert, and Iroh played Pai Sho with another elder man. "My uncle played this game Pai Sho a lot when we were together. Could this mean..." By the time Zuko looked at Piandao's family crescent, he started to see the pictures together. _'This white lotus tile. And the symbol on the door. Could this mean that-' _

"Oh, that reminds me." Sokka pulled out a piece of meteorite from his back pocket. "Toph, I know you never had to bend space earth before." he handed the piece to Toph.

"Sweet! Check this out!" Toph then bended the black meteorite into the shape of a star, then bended it into a you know what.

"I personally don't think that there is a thing of space-earth. If it's from space, then it's not from earth... right?"

"Must you ruin everything?" Sokka complained.

"I can't belive that I missed you, Sokka." Katara said, as they finally departure from Piandao's home.

Zuko stared at the clouds that took the shape of Iroh again. _'Uncle, I hope you're safe. Just hang in there. I'm going to rescue you.' _

* * *

Meanwhile, Iroh is in jail, doing bunch of different exercises, like pushups, sit ups, squats, pull ups while no one is around. He is somehow aware of the Day of the Black Sun and wants to prepare for it. His body used to be fat and is now ripped. He is currently training his mind and body.

* * *

**When I said that Toph bended the meteorite into the you know what, I was talking about the Nickelodeon logo. :)**


	7. The Beach

**Summary: Last time, Sokka was trying to find his way, what he was good at other than being the leader. Instead of looking for a weapon or armor, what he needed was a master.**

* * *

A few days passed since Sokka had made a new sword and bond with Master Piandao. Now the group of teens were relaxing inside of large body of water on the side of an island. They had worn their swim suits and doing activities. Zuko sat next to Toph on a rock surrounded by water, looking around left and right, in case somebody sees them. His hair started to slowly grow back. He removed his eyepatch and let his burned eye heal in the sun. Toph was a few inches close to Zuko, shoulder distant. She watched everyone through the earth.

Katara was drying her her, as she stood in the water. Aang was swimming on his back with Momo lying on his chest and Sokka was fishing with nothing to catch.

"Aang, I know swimming is fun and all, but do you think you should be exposing yourself?" Toph asked in concern. "Cover up."

"What? I'm wearing trunks." Aang said confidently, as he continue to float around.

"She's talking about your tattoos, Aang."

"So?"

"So? What if somebody saw them? What if somebody knew you were the Avatar? If that happens, our cover would be blown, someone would alert the fatherlord, and the Fire Nation would be top of us before the Day of the Black Sun." Zuko tried to reason.

"You mean, the Fire Lord?" Toph corrected him.

"That's what I just said." Zuko snapped at Toph.

"There are walls, everywhere. It's completely safe." Katara assured Toph and Zuko after drying her hair.

"Yeah, but still-"

"Hey, I know you're trying to keep us safe, Zuko, but you have to relax every once in a while. Trust me and have fun." Katara winked at him.

Zuko tried to hide the blush, especially from Katara. He knew that she was cute, though. He has been vigilant ever since they fled from Ba Sing Se. He barely got any rest, as he worried that the Fire Nation could be on them at anytime. His right eye twitched and finally let out a sigh. He trusted Katara and finally let out a sigh. "Alright. So, what do I do that is fun?"

Aang remained quiet until he came up with an idea. "Hey, Zuko. I know something that might be fun."

"Yeah? And what's that?" Zuko asked.

Fifteen seconds later, Zuko and Aang were riding down a dark waterfall tunnel. Aang had pushed Zuko into the dark tunnel first, and then jumped in afterwards. Zuko screamed as he was going so fast while Aang was laughing and enjoying himself. Momo latched onto Aang's neck.

Meanwhile, two young male Fire Nation guards were on patrol standing at a post, bored out of their minds. One of the guards fanned themselves, due to being hot.

"This has to be the most boring job in the Fire Nation. Nothing ever happens." Guard one complained, while the Guard 2 nearly dozed off.

"WWWAAAAAAH!"

Both guards looked at the water as they heard two people screaming and splashed. The took cover behind a dock and used their telescope to see what was going on. They both saw two people rise from the water. They saw the traitor prince Zuko, who had started to grow his hair back and Aang, who grew hair.

Zuko coughed out some water, as Aang just smiled it off, as Momo lied on his head.

"Race you to the top, Zuko!" Aang said to Zuko before using his airbending to run back up the top of the rocks.

Zuko gasped, as Aang was leaving him. "Hold on, Aang! I can't move that fast!" His words didn't reach Aang in time, as he watched Aang use his airbending to jump. Zuko grunted.

The two guards' bodies shook, as they had discovered traitor and Avatar in the Fire Nation. They quickly ducked their bodies and behind some rocks and chatted in secret.

"The Avatar is Alive! We better send a messenger hawk to the Fire Lord." Guard one said, while the other nodded in agreement.

"Better send what to my father?"

Both guards grunted, as they heard a third voice. They slowly poked their heads over the rocks up to see Zuko standing over the two of them with his arms crossed. The two guards got scared for their lives, as they were about to be threatened by the traitor prince. The guards were outclassed in swordsmanship and combat, and what makes it worse is that they are not Fire Benders.

Guard one jumped on his back, as he recognized Zuko. "P-prince Zuko! P-please don't hurt us!"

"Yeah, we're just regular Fire Nation Guards on patrol. We won't tell anyone!" Guard two said as he got on his hands and knees and begged for mercy.

"Do you two swear?" Zuko asked, as his golden eyes glared.

"Yes, we swear! You can even take our messenger hawk. Just please don't hurt us with your firebending!"

At that moment, Zuko knew these guards were not firebenders. Zuko glanced over at the messenger hawk that is in a rectangular steel cage, then looked back down at the two guards. No one in the Fire Nation has the slightest clue that Zuko had lost his firebending, except Team Avatar. If anyone were to find out about it, Zuko would be putting his team at risk.

He closed his eyes a bit to see what he was going to do, since these two guards had blown his cover. "You're off the hook." Zuko said.

"Wha... what?" Guard two paused, as he raised an eye.

"You're letting us go?" Guard two asked as he raised his head.

"But just this once." Zuko raised a finger.

"But... why?"

"I may be a traitor, but I'm not the monster you think I am." Zuko then looked at the red messenger hawk that just squawked. "I am not going to hurt you. But, I am taking the bird with me." Zuko walked over towards the cage and stared at it for a bit.

They then stared as their golden eyes met with each others and the messenger hawk is could tell that Zuko has been through a lot. He opened the caged door and the messenger hawk had grasped onto his left arm, without making a peep. Zuko then looked at the guards that were little a afraid of Zuko.

"This will be our little secret, right?" Zuko expected an answer from both the guards.

"Y-yes sir! We won't tell anybody, sir!" both guards quickly responded.

"Good. And nobody saw me, right?" Zuko asked.

"Yessir!" Both guards replied. The Fire Nation Messenger hawk squawked at them, thinking that they said the wrong answer. "N-no sir!"

"Good." Zuko then turned and left the guards alone, taking their messenger hawk with him.

Fifteen minutes had passed and Zuko had just met up with his team in their hiding spot.

"Hey guys." Zuko said and his messenger hawk squawked a little.

The group was surprised to see Zuko with a Fire Nation messenger hawk, especially Sokka, who gasped and dropped his fishing rod into the water.

"Zuko, is that-ow!" Aang grunted.

Sokka shoved Aang out the way. "Is that... a messenger hawk?! I always wanted one of theose! You gotta tell me." Sokka drooled a bit as he gazed upon the hawk with sparks in his eyes.

"Uh, yeah. This is my new friend, Summer. I got him from a nearby Fire Nation outpost." Zuko said.

Katara gasped and gotten concerned. "Did anybody see you?"

"Well, yeah. Two guards saw me and Aang after sliding down that waterfall. While Aang was airbending his way back, I decided to make sure and keep them quiet."

"Quiet how?"

"Zuko. You didn't hurt them... did you?" Aang asked as he walked towards Zuko with concern.

"What? No! I let them go. I didn't hurt them at all."

"He's telling the truth." Toph said without making eye contact with Zuko.

"Huh? How do you know?" Zuko asked Toph.

Before Toph could speak, Sokka opened his mouth. "Toph is basically a walking human lie detector. She could easily tell who's lying or telling the truth through earthbending."

"Gee, thanks. I couldn't have said it better myself." Toph grumbled.

"Okay... Back to the subject, I left the guards in one piece. But they were afraid of me, though." Zuko added as he looked down.

"Afraid?"

Zuko sighed. "Listen. The Fire Nation has no idea that I can't firebend anymore. See?" Zuko practiced a few strikes, towards Sokka.

Sokka flinched and thought fire was coming out, but there was nothing but tiny poofing clouds. "Hey! Watch where you're pointing those things!" Sokka hid behind a blind Toph Bei Fong. "They're still lethal."

"Oh, how brave you are, genius." Toph said to Sokka in a sarcastic tone, as she felt his presence behind her. She took a step away from Sokka.

"The point is that know one knows about what happened to me. And if they did..."

"We'd all be in jeopardy?" Toph finished Zuko's sentence while looking at the ground.

"That's right. That's why I need to get my firebending spirit back and teach Aang firebending as quick as possible." Zuko cupped his fist in his other hand.

"Don't worry, Zuko. I know you'll firebend again soon. And I'm sure you'll be able to teach Aang soon enough." Katara smiled, attempting to encourage Zuko.

"Thanks."

"Let's hope that happens before Sozin's Comet hits. If not, then we're all toast." Toph brought up a good point.

"Good point." Zuko blinked. Zuko's pet hawk Summer squawked again.

"I totally agree with the Aang mastering all four elements. But first things first. We have to pack up and find another hiding spot." Sokka suggested.

"Huh? Why, Sokka?" Aang asked as he looked slightly confused.

"Since Zuko was nice enough to tell us that there is a Fire Nation outpost close by, we can't risk for Fire Nation reinforcements to be on top of us."

"The genius sure does have a point." Toph said.

"But, where do we go?" Katara asked as she placed a hand on her hip.

Sokka grinned. "I'm glad you asked, my dear lovely sister." He then pulled out his special map. "Ta-da!"

Toph grumbled out of irritation while the rest of the group stared at Sokka with a tired expression on their faces.

"The next place we can after here is-" Katara instantly snatched the map from Sokka's hand and threw it in the water to spite him. "No! Katara, you monster! My map!" Sokka comedically sobbed over his favorite map, and then dived first into the water seconds later.

"So, what do we do now?" Aang asked his friends.

Toph simply shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, I'm just gonna lied down." Aang and Zuko looked as Toph walked towards the shade.

* * *

Later that night, the group of teenagers were sleeping by the outskirts of the island, by a large body of water and the side of a mountain. Sokka and Katara were sleeping on top of bags while Zuko, Toph and Aang lied on the hard ground. Momo lied next to Toph's head, Summer slept next to Zuko's and Appa slept near a boulder, close to Aang.

As the group slept, a large muscular metal man with a metal arm and leg, and a third eye was approaching the scene. He was a firebending assassin who can cause combustion through his forehead. He was seen walking towards around at night, until he saw a large white bison from on top of a hill. He saw the large tattoo that went down Appa's head and back to its tail. He knew the Avatar was there and alive.

Toph suddenly sensed the assassin through the vibrations of the earth. Her blind eyes shot open and her body quickly sat up, as she knew someone was nearby.

Momo grunted as Toph sat up.

"Guys?" Toph woke up the group. "You're gonna think I'm crazy, but it feels like a metal man is coming."

"What? A metal man?" Zuko questioned, as Zuko's hawk Summer had squawked at what Toph was talking about. Summer had quickly caught onto the assassin from on top of the hill with its superior eyesight.

Aang moaned, as he rubbed his eyes. A small beam of light had flashed his eyes. "What?"

The entire group was then alerted as they followed a beam of light, leading to the assassin's metal arm.

"A metal man..." Zuko gasped.

"Who's that?" Sokka asked as he looked above and grabbed his space sword.

The assassin stared at the group of teenagers from below and inhaled some air. As he did, Aang had gasped, as he knew what he was about to do next. The assassin then exhaled, shooting a beam of flames from his third eye. Aang quickly earthbended a wall from the side of a hill to stop the assassin's attack, but it seemed to be useless as the wall was destroyed and the group of teens were sent flying back a few feet.

Toph landed on her feet and bend the earth, causing a bunch of large rocks to rush towards the assassin, but that too seemed to be useless as the assassin had shot a beam blasting through the rocks and aimed straight for Toph.

Aang stepped forward and a bend air with both hands to collide with the assassin's bending. The collision of bending caused Aang to slide backwards, as Katara then stepped in and bend a large tentacle of water to attack the assassin. The combustion assassin saw this and shot a beam of flames at the water, creating a fog of steam.

Appa roared, as he knew that they were being attacked. The group hid behind a few big boulders as the assassin continued to shoot beams of flames through his third eye.

"This is crazy! How do we beat someone who can bend with his mind!?" Sokka shouted as he tried to think of a plan.

"We can't!" Aang stood up and thought of a plan. "Everyone, jump on Appa! I'll think of a way to distract him!" Aang ran out into the open where the assassin could see him and played the diversion.

As Aang distracted the assassin, the group quickly jumped onto Appa's back, just like Aang instructed. Sokka quickly grabbed Appa's latch and ordered him to fly. "Appa, yip yip!"

Appa roared as he took off into the sky, fleeing from the scene. A few minutes later, Aang had led the assassin into the canyon of rock pillars. After hiding himself inside of a boulder and jumping high into the sky, Zuko and Katara quickly caught Aang within midair.

"I'm okay..." Aang panted as he sat next to Katara.

"Well, that was random." Toph said.

"I don't know about that. I feel like he knows who we are..." Katara looked at Toph.

"I feel like I've heard of that guy before... but where?" Zuko tried to think back about seeing or hearing about the assassin. He placed a hand on his chin.

The assassin stood within the canyon, staring at the flying bison leaving the scene. The assassin's eyes narrowed and clenched his fist. He then sent his deadly eagle eagle to carefully follow them and track where they are going.

* * *

**Author's Note: Thank you all for continuing to read this story. I know it's been a while, but I have not given up on it. I plan to finish all of my stories.**

**I made The Beach episode in Zuko's P.O.V. Do you want me to make an alternate version of The Beach episode on Azula's P.O.V.?**

**Also, welcome Team Avatar's newest member... Summer the Messenger Hawk.**


End file.
